Lucknow: A tourist who had come from Delhi to visit the Taj Mahal was attacked by a group of men with rods and batons in Agra after his car accidentally hit one of them. A purported video of the incident, which took place on Sunday near Basai police outpost on Fatehabad road under Tajganj police station, shows the tourist pleading for mercy while the attackers continued to thrash him brutally.
After the footage recorded by a CCTV camera installed inside a sweet shop where the incident took place went viral, several horrified social media users tagged UP Police and demanded action against the assaulters.
Taking cognisance of the matter, police on Tuesday said an FIR has been registered against eight locals, aged between 20 and 22 years, under IPC section 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) based on a complaint by sub-inspector Yogesh Kumar, in charge of Basai outpost.
The accused were identified as Deepak, Saurabh, Brijesh, Sunil and Karan. They all are residents of Karbana village in Agra.
“Five accused have been arrested so far. Our teams are searching for the other three. No complaint has been filed by the victim. We are trying to identify him,” said DCP Suraj Kumar Rai.
Refuting the claims made by some social media users that the attackers were kanwariyas, the DCP said, “The claims that attackers were kanwariyas cannot be substantiated as they can be seen wearing footwear in the video, and Shravan parikrama (circumambulation) is done barefoot. The accused are locals.”
SHO (Tajganj) Devendra Shanker Pandey said, “During interrogation, the accused said the driver of the car had run over a person’s leg, and this led to the incident. One of the accused suffered a leg injury. A few eyewitnesses said the car had a Delhi number plate. We are also verifying the CCTV footage.”
In 2017, a couple from Lausanne in Switzerland was chased by a group of men and attacked with stones and sticks in Fatehpur Sikri, 44 km away from the Taj Mahal. The brutal assault left Quentin Jeremy Clerc with a fractured skull and his partner, Marie Droz, with a broken hand. Later, three accused were arrested.
