‘Name calling led to attack on boy’

Thiruvananthapuram: The special investigation team (SIT), probing the allegation that a minor boy at Ayiroor was assaulted for refusing to smoke ganja, has come to a conclusion that it was nick name calling, not ganja that led to the attack.
Varkala DSP Niyas P, who heads the probe team, said there was no evidence to prove the involvement of ganja as alleged by the father and the minor boy. In fact, it appears that it was a heated exchange between the boy and another group over nick name calling that led to the attack by the gang.
The boy was allegedly assaulted by a four-member gang on December 3 after they barged into the boy’s house. The minor was bleeding from his ears after the attack. “The boy was indeed attacked by the gang and those who committed the crime would be brought before the law, under relevant provisions,” the DSP said. According to police, the minor boy, who was assaulted, used a nickname to address one of the accused, and it led to a heated exchange of words between them. Following this, the minor boy challenged him over the phone. Annoyed at this, the accused assaulted the minor boy.
IPC section 325 for voluntarily causing serious hurt, 324 for causing hurt using dangerous weapons and 341 for wrongful restraint and SC/ST atrocities Act have been charged against the accused in the case. He also said that in the counter-case registered by the accused, a case has also been registered against the relatives of the boy under section 323 of IPC for causing hurt.
Meanwhile, the father of the boy alleged on Tuesday that the probe team threatened the witnesses in the case and also humiliated the father during interrogation.