The incident took place at 2pm when the three men caught the boy stealing Rs 50 from the shop.
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A 14-year-old from Mumbra was tonsured and paraded in the market for allegedly stealing Rs 50 from a shop. The three accused own a general store in the area and were known to the boy.
The teenager's aunt said the boy used to help the accused lift goods at the shop and was a frequent visitor, a Times of India report read. The incident took place at 2pm when the three men allegedly caught the boy stealing Rs 50 from the shop. "He was assaulted and taken to a local salon, where his head was shaved off and he was slapped and abused," his sister said.
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Police said the accused asked the boy to remove his shirt and paraded him in the market for "instant justice". The locals did not intervene. "I was asleep when the incident took place. When my brother came home and narrated the act, I, too, was beaten up by the trio when I asked them about the incident," the boy's brother said.
The boy's mother said that there was a lot of buzz and some procession was taken out. They later learned that one of the boys had confined her son and taken him out in a procession. "How can they do that to a minor boy? They should have informed us or taken him to the police station, if he had committed such a grievous crime," the mother was quoted saying.
She added the boy is now depressed as his schoolmates are teasing him and nobody talks to him. They also refer to him as a thief. The Mumbra police have registered a non-cognisable offence under sections 323, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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