Two people have been arrested in Rajasthan’s Beawar district after a viral video showed them assaulting a man hung upside down from the hook of an excavator machine. An FIR was filed Saturday after a video of the incident, which dates back to April, was circulated on social media, drawing condemnation from political leaders. The video purportedly shows a man dangling upside down from the hook of the JCB excavator, while two others surround him – one using a hose to spray him with water and the other using a stick to beat him up. Flagging the incident on social media, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot called it “mafia rule”. “The public is asking when will this scary game being played with the connivance of the police and administration stop?" Gehlot asked. Congress leaders Tikaram Jully and Govind Singh Dotasra too demanded thorough investigation. The police, however, denied allegations of mafia involvement, claiming that the incident was from a cement factory in Bewar, where a man had been accused of stealing. The incident, according to Beawar SP Shayam Singh, occurred on April 8 but that the “victim did not complain at that time”. “The owner of the factory, Tejpal Singh, accused the victim of stealing some bags of cement while transporting it. He [the victim] was also accused of stealing some diesel,” he said. Of the three people booked in the case, two, including Singh, have been arrested. The third is still absconding, he said.
