A 21-year-old engineering student from Kashmir was assaulted by a mob in Rajasthan’s Alwar district on Wednesday night, police said. According to the police, the student claimed that he was first attacked by three unidentified men who threatened him, forced him to wear women’s clothes and walk in the main market at Neemrana. While he was walking, a mob assaulted him and tied him to an electric post. Additional Superintendent of Police, Neemrana, Tejpal Singh told The Indian Express that they have not been able to verify the student’s claim about miscreants forcing him to wear women’s clothes, and that it is being investigated. The police said they have also been unable to identify or arrest anyone from the mob, though the assault in the market was recorded in videos. An FIR has been lodged against 15-20 unidentified people. Police said the incident happened around 8 pm on Wednesday in Neemrana, where the youth is studying engineering. “The student was seen walking in the market dressed in women’s clothes. He was confronted by local people, who beat him up. He was tied to an electric post and the police was called,” said the investigating officer, Sub-Inspector Laxman Singh from Neemrana police station. “The victim told us he was accosted by three unidentified men who made him wear women’s clothes and walk in the market in that attire. The student said he was threatened by the miscreants,” Singh added. The student suffered multiple injuries, said his elder brother, who reached Neemrana on Thursday. According to him, the student had gone to an ATM near his rented accommodation. When he was walking back, he was accosted by three people who forced him to wear a dress. “He told us that the men asked him to walk through the market, and not panic or run away. A crowd beat him. He survived because somebody called the police. He hasn’t been able to identify those men or his attackers,” he said. At the police station, the brother said, the student “was questioned as if he was the accused”. The college administration too, he said, was not supportive. The duo left for Delhi, where the brother works, on Thursday. The brother said they would consult a doctor. “We have not got his tests done. He does not remember whether the crowd used anything to beat him, because he was so traumatised,” he said. “Preliminary investigation doesn’t quite corroborate the student’s claims, and we have found no evidence that he was forced to wear women’s clothing. We will know the truth after further investigation,” said Additional SP Singh. —With inputs from ENS Gurgaon
