Muslim teens tied, beaten by Maratha men in Latur
Latur: Three Muslim boys between the ages of 13 and 15 were allegedly tied to a tree and a pole and beaten by a group of Maratha men in Latur district of Maharashtra, and a case was filed against the three boys instead of the accused.
The incident took place on July 10 in Kharola village, Renapur Taluka, with a video of the assault going viral on social media. It was only after public pressure grew that the local police registered a first information report (FIR) ten hours later.
According to a report by The Wire, the victims were all school-going boys, and the assailants were all Maratha residents of the same village. The father of one of the minor victims told the publication that he, along with other parents, rushed to the site after being informed of the assault. Also serving as a witness in the case, the father said he saw his son and his friends tied up and being beaten with a belt, wires, and pipes.
“We tried hard to stop the men, but they turned on us and started abusing us. We were so scared they would kill our children, and we couldn’t do anything. After pleading with them, we rushed to the police station, seven kilometres away. The police arrived at the spot immediately,” he said.
The attackers had accused the boys of stealing electric wires from their farms.
The incident occurred around noon, and by 10 pm, one of the alleged prime accused, Sachin Rautrao, filed an FIR against the three boys.
Meanwhile, the victims were taken to the hospital after the police had intervened and stopped the attack. “They were beaten with a belt, wires, and pipes. Their bodies were completely bruised,” said one parent. While the parents tended to the injured boys, one of the accused shared the assault’s video with his friends, which had been widely shared on social media.
The police said they were notified about the ongoing assault and immediately arrived at the scene, where officers had to physically pull the boys away from the mob.
Despite having witnessed the crime themselves, the police failed to register a case at the earliest, reportedly prompting the accused to abscond. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rajendra Mayane claimed that the delay was a result of authorities “trying to verify facts,” even with some officers being present during the violence, the report stated.
Mayane said that Rautrao had come to the police station to lodge the complaint, following which the officers recorded a complaint from one of the victims’ parents. Rautrao’s FIR does not mention that he, with others, had assaulted the minors after tying them to a tree, The Wire reported.
The DSP has stated that the timing was negligible. However, Rautrao and Nitin Shinde, another accused, went missing moments after the police registered an FIR against them.
Initially, the parents’ FIR mentioned two names, and later six more names were added. The accused were identified as Santosh Rautrao, Bably Kale, Datta Jadhav, Balu Suryavanshi, Ganesh Bhopi, and Dashrath Bhopi. The six accused were produced before a magistrate and subsequently released on bail after two days. Rautrao and Shinde remain absconding.
DSP Mayane has maintained that the attack did not have a communal angle despite the parents claiming that the accused shouted casteist and communal slurs at them during the attack. One parent even said that the police officers warned them from connecting their Muslim identity to the case. “This was not a case of communal violence,” Mayane repeatedly said.
“The sequence of FIR is irrelevant here. Although we received a theft complaint against the boys, we didn’t initiate any action against them,” he added.
Juned Atar, a rights activist helping the victims and the parents pursue the case, questioned if the assailants would have attacked the boys had they been from the same community. “The fact that these are Muslim boys, and their parents won’t be able to fight back, emboldened the accused men,” alleged Atar.
This post was last modified on July 17, 2026 1:43 pm