Police in Indore have filed an FIR against owner of a private oxygen plant for severely thrashing his five employees for illegally selling oxygen cylinders.
The incident happened on Thursday night and the FIR was filed on Friday.
Chirag Verma, who was among those beaten, said they were "tortured" after being called to office.
"When we reached the oxygen plant, we were called the office where there were several people including our employer and his daughter. When we reached the room, people gathered in the room started beating us. They thrashed us for half-an-hour. Then they took us to another room where they made us stand in a bucket of ice and started beating us again. They even put chilly along with ice in my mouth," he alleged.
Another victim Raj Verma confessed to illegally selling 10 oxygen cylinders without the permission of the factory owner and said they later brought them back. "We brought them back with the money we earned by selling the oxygen cylinders illegally," he said.
He alleged that the incident happened in presence of two police officers and claimed that they too were part of the group which beat them.
Superintendent of Police, Indore Ashutosh Bagri said they were gathering evidence and will take suitable action.
"We have registered the FIR against all the accused including the owner of the company. FIR was filed according to prima facie compliant. We'll take action according to the evidence collected," the SP said.
He added that no person can take law in their own hand, and if the men had stolen the oxygen cylinders, the employer should have come to the police rather than beating them.
Asked about the alleged involvement of police officers in the incident, the SP said no police officer involved in the matter.
"But we are checking the CCTV footage of the factory to ascertain the facts. It is true that police officers are stationed outside the factory, but the incident happened inside the factory. We are looking at the CCTV footage. If officers are found near the crime scenes then strict action will be taken against them."
( With inputs from ANI )
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