A disturbing video of a minor physically assaulting his mother with a broomstick surfaced on social media on Saturday, prompting the police to swing in action. The Chennammanakere Achukattu Police in Bengaluru had registered a suo motu case against the 17-year-old boy on the orders of jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner of Police Annamalai. The video was shot by the boy’s elder sister.
The accused has been identified as a student at a private college and was addicted to smoking and alcohol, according to the police. He would attack his mother whenever she would advise him to change his habits. The First Information Report was filed under sections IPC 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (Assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 509 (Insult to modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. He was also charged under sections of the COPTA Act (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act).
Even Chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Women Nagalakshmi Bai has taken cognisance of the incident.
In the video, the boy can be seen threatening his mother for speaking ill about him to the neighbours and can also be heard threatening to beat her if she continues to talk to the neighbours about him. Later, when he sees his sister recording a video, he says that he is not afraid of a police complaint.
In the video, the minor can be seen beating his mother with a broom once and she winces in pain and cries out.
He asks her, "How many times have I told you not to talk about me? (He is referring to his mother talking about his behaviour to someone). Don't you know that you'll get beaten if you talk?" The mother then says, "No, I did not say anything to anyone." That's when he hits her, saying, "Have I interfered with your life? Then why are you interfering in mine?"
When the mother says that she spoke about him to others as he had beaten her up before too, he replies, "I beat you when you talk about me. If you did not talk, there would not have been any beatings".
“The son was upset with the mother as she allegedly badmouthed him in the neighbourhood. Recently, the woman was seen talking to her neighbours on the future of her son as he was not serious about life and faring badly in studies,” the police told The Times of India.
When the police reached out to his mother, she reportedly did not give any statement to the police fearing further attacks from her son. However, the teenager was forced to apologise to his mother after the police confronted him and warned him of dire consequences. The police let him off with a warning and an undertaking from him.