Meghalaya boy thrashed for taking TV from employer against unpaid wages

East Jaintia Hills district police lodged a complaint after video of the boy being tied and thrashed by a mob went viral.

A boy in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district was mercilessly thrashed by a mob for taking a television set and a blanket from his employer against unpaid wages, officials said on Thursday.

The owner of the house where the boy was working called a few people in the area. They tied the boy up, thrashed him with sticks and kicked him. (Video grab)

The incident happened on May 13 in Khliehriat but the East Jaintia Hills district police lodged a complaint on Thursday after the video of the boy being thrashed went viral on social media.

Khliehriat, the headquarters of the coal-rich East Jaintia Hills district, is 97 km southeast of Meghalaya capital Shillong.

The police also acted on a complaint filed on Thursday by the rights organisation Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO) to the officer in charge of Khliehriat police station demanding action against a person called Bhalang Shylla and a few others who “took law into their hands”.

“We have begun an investigation into the incident and are searching for the people in the violent video,” district superintendent of police Spill Thamar told the Hindustan Times.

Locals said the boy, a minor, had run away with his employer’s TV and blanket because he had not been paid a few months’ wages for helping out in the house. But on May 13, he came to return the TV and the blanket.

As soon as he arrived, the owner of the house called a few people in the vicinity. They tied the boy up, thrashed him with sticks and kicked him.

“The incident was inhuman. It was almost as if a cow belt lynch mob was at work,” CSWO’s Agnes Kharshiing said, adding that her organisation sounded out the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR).

Meena Kharkongor, the chairperson of Meghalaya SCPCR, said the panel would be studying the video and take action accordingly.