Acting on MiD DAY report, cops lodge FIR against Mulund residents who mistook 'mentally unstable' man for robber and mauled him when he wandered into their locality
Acting on MiD DAY report, cops lodge FIR against Mulund residents who mistook 'mentally unstable' man for robber and mauled him when he wandered into their locality
A day after MiD DAY's article on an innocent man stripped and thrashed by some Mulund residents after they mistook him for a robber, the police, reacting to the report, registered an FIR against the attackers.
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"We have registered an FIR under Sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 325 (punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt against unknown people)," said Inspector Y L Jadhav of Mulund police station.
On Thursday, some residents of Dargah Road tied Anil to a tree, pounded him, and paraded him in his undergarments, suspecting him to be a robber. The residents, who were gripped with fear after rumours of a gang of robbers working the neighbourhood, had also started patrolling in the night with lathis and swords.
The family members of the victim were on the way to lodge a missing complaint in Bhayender, when they saw Anil's pictures in the newspaper, and approached the MT Agarwal hospital in the suburb, where Kumar was admitted.
"A newspaper vendor who stays in front of our house brought the MiD DAY's Thursday edition to us," said Shiv Shankar Yadav, Anil's brother-in-law. "We were about to launch a missing complaint as he had gone missing from Thursday morning."
Anil hails from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. His family had recently migrated to the city in search of work. "I don't know how he reached Mulund and how he got beaten up by the public; he is still unable to talk and is in shock," said Shiv Shankar, who drives an auto.
In the city, Anil used to live in Bhayender with his father-in-law. "Anil is mentally unsound. He takes off for anywhere for no reason. We suspect he might have wandered to Mulund, leading to the whole incident," said Shiv Shankar.