Teenage boy thrashed, tonsured on theft suspicion; 1 held

A 14-year-old boy was thrashed, tonsured and paraded half-naked allegedly by four men in Chhattisgarh's Sarguja district on suspicion of theft, police said today.
The assaulters also allegedly wrote 'thief' on the boy's abdomen, they said.
"The incident, which came to light yesterday, took place on September 10 at Darripara village under Manipur police outpost area, close to Ambikapur district headquarters," Sarguja Additional Superintendent of Police Ramkrishna Sahu said.
While one of the accused, identified as Babua Singh (28), was taken into custody based on a complaint about the incident, the three others - Deepak Sahu, Amit Sahu and Sandeep Sahu - are absconding, he said.

As per the complaint, the minor boy, a native of Wadrafnagar, had recently come to his maternal aunt's place in Darripara for a visit.
On Saturday morning, the accused Deepak, who runs a grocery shop in the same area, along with three others stormed into the house of the boy's aunt and dragged him to his shop.

Accusing him of stealing something, they brutally assaulted him with sticks and kicked him, the ASP said.
The boy kept pleading with them to stop, but the men continued with the thrashing. After some time, they tonsured him and cut his moustache.
They did not stop there and even wrote 'thief' on his abdomen. They then forced him to sit on their motorcycle following which they paraded him half-nakedin the locality, he said further quoting the complaint.

They held him captive at Deepak's shop till late evening before asking his cousin brother to take him home. The accused also threatened the victimnot to complain about the incident to anyone, the ASP said.
However, when the boy'scondition deteriorated, his cousin brother narrated the incident to the family and the victim wasadmitted to Ambikapur district hospital, he said.
Later, the boy's mother lodged the policecomplaint.
The accused have been booked under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention), he said.
Efforts are on to trace three other accused, the ASP said, adding that further investigation was on.