Tribal man thrashed and urinated on in Andhra Pradesh’s Ongole; 6 held

Malika Garg, Superintendent of Police, Prakasam, said when they came to know about the video, they added Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to the case as well as those under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The police said Naveen lodged a complaint the next morning and they registered a case of assault and invoked the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. They allegedly did not take any action as they knew all of them as a gang of friends and accomplices in various cases.

They said Naveen and the main accused Manne Ramanjaneyulu are childhood friends and are accomplices in nearly 50 cases of theft and robbery in Ongole, Guntur, and Bapatla.

Naveen was arrested last December under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act after he eloped with a 16-year-old girl. The police traced them and brought them back to Ongole and arrested Naveen. He was recently released on bail.

According to the police, Ramanjaneyulu and Naveen and his brother Raja got together in the evening on June 19 at a place where they usually met to consume alcohol. While they were drinking, nine other friends and acquaintances who live in the same locality as Ramanjaneulu and Naveen joined them.

One of them, K Abhilash, is also a family friend of the minor girl with whom Naveen had eloped. The girl’s family had later approached Abhilash’s family for marriage after she turned 18.

Abhilash and the others picked up a quarrel with Naveen, saying he was still trying to contact the girl even though the police and her family had warned him to stay away from her.

Ramanjaneyulu also accused Naveen of passing on information to the police leading to their arrests often last year. As the argument escalated, Ramanjaneyulu attacked Naveen while his brother Raja managed to escape.

Ramanjaneyulu was joined by the others who thrashed Naveen for several minutes, and then Ramanjaneyulu and Abhilash urinated on him as he lay on the ground. The assault was recorded by one of the men present at the spot on his mobile phone which has now gone viral on social media.

After beating him up, Ramanjaneyulu called up Naveen’s relatives where he was hurt and asked them to take him to the hospital. At the Ongole Government hospital, personnel of the police outpost took a statement from Raja who said they were assaulted but did not mention that Naveen was urinated upon.

Garg dismissed allegations the police took Naveen’s first complaint lightly and did not take any action. She said that based on the statement taken by the officer at the hospital police outpost, the local sub-inspector went to the hospital to record Naveen’s statement but he had run away from there.

“We traced the brothers after we found the video and took their statement again in which Naveen mentioned the urination part. We have arrested six persons including Abhilash. This is not a caste-related incident. Abhilash belongs to the SC community, and some of the accused are also SC and ST. We are looking for the main accused Ramanjanelu and two others who may be hiding in Hyderabad,” she said.

She added the police were unaware of the urination part until the video surfaced.