Ravi Ojha’s ordeal begins with him being tied to a lamp post

The 11-year-old screams for mercy as people take turns in hitting him. Pictures by Gopal Senapati

An 11-year-old boy allegedly caught stealing a cellphone was tied to a lamp post and mauled by a mob within 500 metres of a police station in Howrah on Thursday.

Doctors said Ravi Ojha, the son of ragpickers, was lucky not to be critically injured after 20 minutes of hitting and kicking by a mob that treated him like a hardened criminal rather than a juvenile delinquent.

“He was bleeding when the police brought him in but his injuries weren’t life-threatening. We discharged him after first aid,” a doctor at the state-run TL Jaiswal Hospital told Metro.

Ravi, who has never been to school and grown up in a locality that is locally known as “Chambalgully” because of its petty criminals, was allegedly spotted stealing tobacco trader Sanjoy Biswas’s cellphone from his shop at Naskarpara Bazar around 12.15pm.

Biswas had got up from his seat to go to the toilet when the alleged incident occurred. “Chor, chor…oke dhoro (thief, thief…catch him),” shouted the shopkeeper who claimed to have seen Ravi put the phone in his pocket.

Around 40 people immediately left whatever they were doing to chase the boy down the narrow street. Ravi gave up after sprinting around 200 metres.

“I feared for the boy as they dragged him back, tied him to a lamp post and took turns hitting him,” a witness said.

By the time a team from Malipanchghara police station reached the site, the boy was on his knees, his hands and nose bleeding, and his face caked in mud.

“We let him go after making him grovel and promise not to steal again. He is a repeat offender,” Biswas said.

He did not lodge a police complaint, though. “I have got back my cellphone and the thief has been taught a lesson. I don’t need to go to the police,” the trader said.

The police held back Ravi for a few hours thinking his parents would turn up and file a complaint against those who assaulted their son. They didn’t.