Bengaluru: Three minor boys were stripped and assaulted by a group of six to seven men for “stealing money” from a shop in Ambedkar Colony in Hoskote on the outskirts of the city. The police detained four of them on Saturday after the video of the assault went viral on WhatsApp.
Mr Abdul Aziz, the father of one of the victims, said that the three boys were coming home from school to have lunch around 1.30 pm on Thursday. The assaulters accused them of stealing money from a petty shop belonging to one Nooruddin.
The men bundled the boys into a car, drove them to a shop of one of the accused and administered electric shocks. The men again dragged them to an isolated place near the shop, stripped and thrashed them mercilessly.
The assault did not end there. The defenceless boys were then taken to a eucalyptus grove on Chintamani Road where they were stripped and beaten up again. The men allegedly also broke glass bottles on the boys’ heads.
When the schoolchildren tried to save themselves, the accused pinned them down to the ground by stepping on their hands and legs and caned them. The ordeal continued for over four hours.
Mr Aziz learnt about the attack from the mother and brother of his son’s friend and rushed to Nooruddin’s shop, where he was told that the boys had been taken to the eucalyptus grove. When Mr Aziz tried to rescue the boys, he was threatened by the attackers. But he managed to pull the boys out and rushed them to a hospital.
Mr Aziz said, “I approached the Hoskote police around 5.30 pm on the same day of the incident. But the police refused to act, while the perpetrators, Nooruddin, Mastaan, Gandhi, Zabiullah, Samsheer and others, continued to roam free.”
One of the attackers had video-recorded the incident and sent it on WhatsApp to his friends with a message that the punishment was befitting of thieves. Mr Aziz said, “My son was assaulted the most. I am running around like a mad man to save my only son who has developed convulsions and high fever.”
Bengaluru Rural SP Amit Singh, said, “We have detained four men and booked all the accused for kidnapping, rioting and assault. We are also conducting an inquiry to find out why the case was not registered the same day, but the next.”
