Mob beats man, strips him naked, films and makes video viral; "Investigation is on," SP Hailakandi

It was not that long ago, Assam lost Nilotpal Das and Abhijit Nath. The two young boys were lynched by the locals of Panjuri Kacharigaon, a Karbi tribal village about 200 km east of Guwahati. The resident suspected the duo to be ‘khupadhora’ or child abductors. The video went viral on social media where they kept pleading for mercy but no one listened. June 2018, the twentysomethings breathed their last in the remote village.

Since yesterday, a video has gone viral on social media in Hailakandi which must remind people about Nilotpal Das and Abhijit Nath. In the video, a young man is seen pleading for mercy. However, a group of locals in a village in Lala keeps beating him. They then strip him naked in public with many females around.

While the video went viral yesterday, the incident apparently took place a few days back. The man in the video has identified himself as Nurul Islam and said he works as a ferriwala and buys hair from a lady in the village. He said, he gave an advance to the lady but that particular lady stopped receiving his calls and did not deliver the product either.

“That is why I went to her home to ask for money. When I reached there, her daughter-in-law told me that she is not at home. Her daughter in law was sitting at the shop next to their house and I requested her to make a call. Over the phone, she asked me to come back later and cut the call. Then I requested her daughter-in-law to make another call but she started shouting at me and I shouted back. This was a normal argument, but when she informed her husband, they all came and started assaulting me,” said Laskar.

Locals, however, alleged that he manhandled the lady at the store and made obscene gestures. Nurul Islam is from West Bengal and has been living in Lala for nine years now. He says, after beating for a while, the locals stopped and asked him to seek forgiveness. “I have to run my business and live in public, so I apologised. The matter was sorted between the two parties and we mutually compromised. I was told that the video will be deleted. But as it turns out, it has gone viral,” added Nurul Islam.

Hailakandi Police has taken suo moto action after the video went viral. “We have observed that an objectionable post was published on social media and then it was given a communal colour. That is why we decided to investigate the matter and found out that they had mutually compromised among them,” said SP Hailakandi Police, PK Nath.

He added, “After we started investigating the matter, a complaint against the man was raised. It states that he attempted to rape the lady. We are investigating the matter and will take action as per law.”

The SP made it clear that Police will take strict actions against objectionable social media posts.