A boy is seen pleading with folded hands: “Bhaiya, I don’t have any money. Please spare me this time”. He kept crying in pain, they kept assaulting him even more.
The distressing scene unfolded in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur where the minor was brutally beaten and stripped naked by a group of men over a money dispute. Barbaric videos of the incident, shot and circulated on social media by the accused, show them slapping, kicking and dragging the victim by his hair. A clip shows one of the men trying to burn the boy’s hair.
The torture doesn’t stop there. The men then strip him naked and tie a brick to his genitals.
The boy had allegedly lost Rs 20,000, borrowed from two of the accused, in an online game and was brutalised after he failed to pay up.
He then tells them that he would return the money after he gets a job but the assault continues.
The victim and accused were students at a coaching institute for competitive exams and staying at a hostel in the Kakadeo area of the city where the assault happened on April 20.
He was finally let go with a threat: Pay the money within two days or the videos will be shared online. He failed to arrange the money and the clips were then posted online.
The police took note of the video and arrested the men seen in the video. The men have been identified as Tanay Chaurasiya, Abhishek Verma, Yogesh Vishwakarma, Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, Har Govind Tiwari, and Shiva Tripathi, all from the Kakadeo police station area. They have admitted to the crime, the police said, adding they are trying to catch the other accused.
(With inputs from Arun Agarwal)
