Shahjahanpur: A 33-year-old man died after allegedly being given electric shocks and thrashed by his employer over suspicion of theft in the Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Thursday. A video showing Shivam Johri tied to a pole in a semi-naked state and writhing in pain as a man beats him up with a belt was widely circulated on social media on Wednesday.
Circle Officer (City) BS Veer said, "Johri worked as a manager at Suri Transports. The company's owner Neeraj Gupta accused him of theft and took him to the cloth firm of one Kunal Arora." "According to the police complaint, Johri was tied to a pillar, his shirt was removed and he was hit repeatedly with a belt. Gupta, Arora and six others also gave him electric shocks," Veer added.
When Johri lost consciousness, Gupta informed his family members that he had been electrocuted. Johri's family members took him to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries on Wednesday, the police said. The police shifted the body for post-mortem and took up an investigation. Based on a complaint lodged by Johri's family, an FIR was registered against eight people, including Gupta and Arora, under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code on Wednesday.
Sources said that Shivam Johri, who was working as a transport manager, was rushed to the district hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead. The deceased family members alleged that Shivam's body bore multiple injury marks as well as injuries due to electric shocks. A complaint was lodged against Neeraj Gupta, the owner of Kanhaiya Hosiery, at Sadar Bazar police station, including the accountant and several other people, on the charge of beating Shivam to death.
