M A I N   N E W S

Youth beaten up, stripped

JALANDHAR, June 3 (PTI) — In a heinous act, a youth who had allegedly wrongly parked his tractor-trolley, was brutally beaten up, stripped naked and illegally detained for one-and-a-half hours by a local trader and his henchmen yards away from a police station even as scores of people watched the young man being humiliated.

Kulwinder Singh (23) of Mehamadpur village in Nakodar had come to subzi mandi near the Maqsoodan police station but got into a scuffle with a local trader, Rajbir Singh Bhullar, who had objected to the trolley being parked in front of his shop.

Kulwinder said Bhullar snatched the keys and tried to move away the trolley himself. When he protested, Bhullar and some of his associates bashed up Kulwinder, tore away his clothes stripping him naked, then took him to the basement of shop No. 97 where he was again beaten.

In a complaint lodged with the police, Kulwinder said he was kept naked and detained from 6 a.m. to 7.30 a.m. during which his assaulters beat him up repeatedly and brought him thrice out of the basement, while still naked, before a large crowd which had gathered in front of the shop owned by Bhullar.

The SSP, Mr Gaurav Yadav, confirming the incident, said a case under Sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (causing hurt), 355 (assault to dishonour) and 149 (common intent) had been registered against Bhullar.

It was only when three passers-by — Harmit Singh of Ghazipur, Tarsem Singh of Sunnra and Balwant Singh of Sangowal and a local trader Pali — intervened that the youth was released but this time policemen had reached the venue and rounded up people from both parties.

What was more shocking was the fact that a badly muled Kulwinder was brought to the police station with only his torn shirt wrapped around his waist. He had swellings on his right eye, left forearm, buttocks and shoulders but the SHO, Mr Som Nath, did not ordered his medical examination and was seen trying to get both parties to reach a compromise.

Kulwinder, who seemed to have been shaken psychologically, was made to sit in the police station for over an hour without being offered even a set of clothes to cover himself properly.