A 19-year-old youth and a 30-year-old Dalit man were allegedly hanged upside down and tortured by a sheep farm owner and three others accusing the duo of stealing a goat at Yapal village near Mandamarri town of Mancherial district on Friday.
The incident, pictures of which went viral on social media on Saturday, sparked outcry. Mandamarri police arrested sheep farm owner K Ramulu,57, his wife Swaroopa, 54 and son Srinivas, 37, on Saturday night. Another accused identified as Naresh, a worker at Ramulu’s sheep farm, was arrested on Sunday, sources said.
The perpetrators of the violence allegedly subjected the duo identified as Kiran, 30, a mason belonging to Scheduled Castes community, and Teja, 19, a worker at the sheep farm, to torture by tying their hands, hanging them upside down and burning firewood underneath them to emit smoke at a shed beside the sheep farm on charges of stealing a goat.
The two reportedly sustained minor injuries when attacked by the four accused with sticks, sources said. They were let off following the intervention of two friends of Kiran the same day.
Sources close to Kiran’s family said he did not return home and has remained untraceable. A police team was pressed into service to find his whereabouts.
All the four accused have been arrested under Section 342, 307 r/w 34 IPC and Section 3(2) (v) of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, said Bellampalli ACP Sadaiah.
The accused Ramulu, Swaroopa and Srinivas, who were arrested on Saturday night, were produced in the court. They were remanded in judicial custody and sent to the District Jail in Adilabad.
