Ten persons, including the husband of a village sarpanch, have been arrested in Chhattisgarh's Balrampur district for thrashing seven tribal youths including a minor for stealing fishes, police said on Monday.
Those arrested are Chera village sarpanch’s husband Satyam Yadav, Jitendra Pratap Yadav alias JP Yadav, Banshidhar Yadav, Basdeo Yadav, Alok Yadav, Jitendra Yadav, Jai Prakash Yadav alias Nanhu Yadav, Jamuna Yadav, Dev Sai and Dinanath Yadav, Wadraf Nagar SDOP Dhruwesh Jaiswal said.
One of the victims, Ramdhani Pando (35), lodged a complaint on Monday following which the arrests took place.
On June 15, the seven victims, from the Pando tribal community, were taken to the farm house of Satyam Yadav.
After being tied to trees, they were beaten with sticks and slippers during a Jan Chaupal (public gathering) at the farm house by the accused, the officer said. They were also slapped and abused.
The accused threatened them with dire consequences if they reported the matter to the police. The seven were also fined Rs 35,000 each and asked to pay up within 15 days.
The videos of the brutality went viral on social media platforms.