A trekking trip to Savandurga proved costly for five students from the city after villagers, who mistook them for cattle thieves, beat them up after tying them to a pole, on the outskirts of Ramanagar on Sunday.
The victims identified as Amruth, Raghu, Srikanth, Vedamurthy and Krishna. The police said that the villagers, who were after cattle thieves, found them sleeping in a car on the outskirts of Katukarapalya village. Before the four youth could realise what was happening, the villagers had dragged them out of their sports utility vehicle and took them to the village, where they were tied to a pole and beaten up.
Though the youth tried to explain that they were trekkers, the villagers were reportedly in no mood to listen. The villagers allegedly beat them up the whole night. It was only on Monday morning that the police reached the spot and took the youth into custody for questioning.
Krishna, said to be student of private college in the city, said that they had gone to trekking in Savanadurga. They decided to stop the car and rest since it was late in the night.
According to a police official, the villagers claimed that the number of cases of cattle theft was increasing in the village. They said thieves would come to the village, latch the houses from outside and steal sheep, goat and cattle. They claimed that on Sunday, two thieves came to the village on a bike and attempted to steal sheep. Though the alert villagers chased them, the thieves managed to escape. It was when the villagers were looking from the thieves that they found the five youth sleeping in the car and mistook them to be part of the cattle stealing gang, the official said.
"Right now, our priority is to ensure that the four youth get treatment. We will also record their statements," he added. Meanwhile, relatives of the youth are in the process of filing a complaint.
