Accused is on the lam.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
A farm owner allegedly chopped off the thumb of a teenager for plucking mangoes from his orchard in Auraiya district, near Kanpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The victim has been admitted to the hospital and is recovering, reported The Times of India.
Prem Shanker, who owns a mango orchard in Bhaisol village under the limits of Phafoond Kotwali police station, was accused of the atrocious act against his neighbor Anshu, when the boy tried to pluck some mangoes, Tuesday afternoon.
According to the police, Shanker caught Anshu grabbing mangoes. Angered, he beat up the boy who was requesting him to forgive him, and then chopped off the thumb of the boy using a sharp-edged knife.
The villagers who heard the boy crying came to the spot to see Anshu with severely bleeding thumb. They informed his parents and they immediately rushed to the nearest hospital with the boy.
At the hospital, Anshu narrated the entire story to the doctors who in turn informed the police. But Shanker had fled by the time and the police have started a search for the accused.
“My son’s only crime was that he plucked a few mangoes from his orchard. He brutally assaulted him and later chopped off his thumb and fled,” Anshu’s father Awadhi Bihari was quoted as saying by The Times of India.