Varanasi: A 17-year-old teen of Ghamahapur village under Rohania police station was brutally beaten to death near Panditpur by some miscreants for allegedly stealing a mobile phone. They had taken the victim to recover the cellphone Saturday night.ACP (Rohania) Sanjiv Sharma said that in a dispute of mobile theft the prime accused Ramesh Patel took Sanu with him. In the same altercation the teen was physically assaulted by Patel and his accomplices, due to which he died.A murder case was lodged in this connection against Patel and his six accomplices. Police teams were engaged for their early arrest, he said, mentioning Patel went to jail in 2015 in a case of cattle smuggling.Victim’s uncle Akhtar Ali said that around 9 pm on Saturday, Patel and his accomplice raided his house and blamed the boy for having stolen his mobile phone. He started demanding back his mobile phone when he refused, they took him away to settle the matter at the police outpost.However, instead of taking him to the police outpost, they took him near a culvert in front of a petrol pump outside Panditpur village and started beating him. Before Akhtar and other family members could reach the culvert, the assailants fled the scene while the boy was lying in an unconscious state. He was rushed to a local hospital where doctor declared him dead.Akhtar said that the victim, who worked as a mason to feed his mother and two siblings after the death of his father, was the target of Patel for a long time. Patel suspected that he was arrested by police in a cattle smuggling case on the information given by the boy.ACP said that as Patel had a criminal record and he had gone to jail on the charges of cattle smuggling, all aspects related to the deceased and accused would be covered under investigation.
