Four held for death of man tortured with electric shocks in Shahjahanpur

A video circulated on social media on Wednesday purportedly showed the victim tied to a pole and wincing in pain as a man beat him with a belt

LUCKNOW Four accused, including a transport agency owner, were arrested in the death of a 33-year-old Shahjahanpur resident, Shivam Jauhari, who succumbed to injuries after he was thrashed and electrocuted allegedly by his employer over suspicion of theft, Shahjahanpur police said.

Taking cognisance of the gruesome incident, the police lodged an FIR under IPC sections of torture and murder against seven people. (PPic for representation)

The four named accused, including the owner of Suri Transport Agency, Bankim Suri, and others identified as Shivam, Govind and Raghav were arrested in the matter. But the prime accused and owner of Kanhaiya hosiery shop, Neeraj Gupta, and his two close aides were still at large, the officials informed.

A video circulated on social media on Wednesday purportedly showed Shivam Johri tied to a pole in a semi-naked state and wincing in pain as a man beat him with a belt. Along with Shivam, three other transport agency employees - Ram Niwas, Raghuveer, and Sanju - were subjected to similar brutalities as their employer and the owner of the hosiery shop and his aides accused them of stealing cloth bundles, said police.

It is alleged that the four employees of the Shahjahapur-based transport agency were hanged from the fifth floor of a building, given electric shocks through live wires in a swimming pool, and thrashed with an iron rod.

Taking cognisance of the gruesome incident, the police lodged an FIR under IPC sections of torture and murder against seven people, including the transport agency owner, based on the complaint made by Shivam’s father at the Sadar police station on Wednesday.

The officials informed that the police had retrieved CCTV footages of the entire incident from a digital video recorder. The fibre pipe used for thrashing the employees and the ropes used for tying them up had been recovered from the office of the hosiery shop. The cops were analysing the CCTV footages and recording the statements of the three other employees subjected to brutality. Further investigation was underway and the three other accused would be arrested soon, said police.

The hosiery shop owner and his aides, in the presence of the transport agency owner, tortured all of them and forced them to accept that they stole their bundles of cloth from the transport agency godown, said police.