8 boys arrested for beating up watchman with hockey sticks

Last month, a gang of 11 friends beat up a watchman with hockey sticks because he allegedly stopped one of them from urinating on the boundary wall of a disputed land at Charkop.

Last month, a gang of 11 friends beat up a watchman with hockey sticks because he allegedly stopped one of them from urinating on the boundary wall of a disputed land at Charkop.

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On Wednesday, the police arrested eight of the boys following a tip-off.

The watchman, Feroz Patel, 35, who sustained multiple fractures on his hands and legs, is still recuperating at Bhagwati Hospital. The police said the boys, who are from well-to-do families, study in colleges located in Malad and Kandivli.

The incident took place on January 9, around 9.30pm.

The arrested boys, whose names have been withheld because they are minors, told the police that they were roaming in the area, when one of their friends walked towards the boundary wall to urinate. But Patel stopped him and told them to leave.

The boy left only to return a few minutes later with 10 of his friends carrying hockey sticks and faces covered with handkerchiefs. They thrashed Patel and fled. A passerby found Patel lying unconscious on the road and took him to the hospital.

“The reason that the boys are giving for beating up the watchman is too trivial. We are trying to check if they had been hired to assault the watchman because he was deployed on the disputed property,” said an officer from Charkop police station.

The police are still looking for three other accused.