A great injustice has been done against three boys after they were publicly stripped, flogged and shamed in public for coming from a poor background.
The boys were strippedn naked and publicly flogged
Three young boys have been left traumatised, shamed and disgraced after they were stripped and flogged in the street in a sick caste crime that has shocked India.
The disturbing video shows the terrified teenagers cowering n*ked in the street as adult men beat them until they bleed. The evil punishment was meted on the boys because of their poor family background as they are ostracized and regarded as next to nothing.
The boys, aged between just 13 and 15 years old, are seen wailing and covered in dust and blood as the blows rain from different angles. Quoting local media reports, the boys were stripped, tied to a tree and lashed before being paraded naked through the village in a depraved and humiliating ritual.
The brutal beating was dished out by a mob of upper-class village elders in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, in just the latest caste-based crime to rock modern day India.
People were left in shock after the police arrested the the boys for the alleged theft of a motorbike rather than pursuing the attackers following a report by aggrieved individuals.
Officers arrested the trio - reportedly from the lowly Dalit caste - at the hospital after they had received treatment for their horrific wounds, according to Indian broadcaster NDTV.
However, in the face of public outrage detectives revisited the case and six men have now been arrested on suspicion of assault.
Disgusted Manan Chaturvedi, the head of Rajasthan's child rights commission, said: "We are forming a committee that will investigate this matter and then appropriate action will be taken after proper evidence is found."
Caste-based discrimination was banned in India in 1955, but centuries-old attitudes persist in many parts of the country and low-caste Indians including the Dalits still face prejudice in every sector, particularly in rural areas.
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