TARSI, MADHYA PRADESH: In a shocking incident, a young man was beaten up and tied upside down to a window of a train coach for drinking water from the bottle of a fellow passenger without taking permission. The incident happened between Jabalpur and Itarsi stations on March 25.
Though the accused were arrested the same day, the incident invited public attention after a video surfaced yesterday.
PK Joshi, Itarsi station in-charge of the Government Railway Police, said, "Vicky (24), Ravi (25) and Balram (24), students from Patna, were arrested on the complaint of the victim Sumit Kacchi (25) for assault and other offences on March 25 itself."
According to a complaint filed by Mr Kacchi, he had boarded coach S-2 of Patliputra Express (Patna-Mumbai) from his hometown Jabalpur that day.
Feeling thirsty, he drank some water from the bottle belonging to one of the accused without asking them. The persons accused were on the way to Mumbai for writing an examination.
The accused were so infuriated that they pulled the chain and stopped the train between Jabalpur and Itarsi stations, and then allegedly tied Kacchi's leg to the outer side of the window with his head down, beat him up, and forced him to travel in that position for nearly four hours, eye witnesses said.
At Itarsi, some vendors who got onto the coach released him. The accused then allegedly beat him with belts at the Itarsi station as well, eye witnesses said.
Mr Kacchi filed a complaint with the railway police, following which the accused were arrested at Itarsi.
Mr Joshi claimed that Mr Kacchi did not tell the police he had been tied upside down, but they came to know about it only when the video of the incident, shot by one of the vendors, surfaced.