Around the night of 1-2 October, a Dalit man named Hariom Valmiki was killed by a mob in Rae Bareli's Unchahar town. The reason behind it was a rumour that he was a thief. A few days earlier, a mentally unstable man was killed due to a rumour of theft in Bareilly. But these were not isolated incidents.

Similar incidents have come to light from many rural areas of Uttar Pradesh which have been caused due to such rumours. And at the root of these violent incidents are rumours and conspiracy theories.

These incidents are living examples of the fact that the impact of rumours are now being felt on people's lives and are not only limited to social media platforms.

In this special report by The Quint, we have tried to find out of the root-cause of these incidents. When we went to the ground,

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