The detained youths at the Sachivalaya police station. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Nov. 26: Angry after being roughed up by some local residents who caught him misbehaving with a female college student, a 20-year-old boy ganged up with two of his friends and allegedly beat up the girl in full public view today.

However, two policemen of the Quick Mobile Service witnessed the assault on the girl and nabbed two of the three boys. But the prime instigator managed to flee.

The shocking assault, the third such shameful incident in the city in the past two months, took place at the busy Hartali Mor area under the Sachivalaya police station around 12.30pm, the police said.

The Telegraph is withholding the identity of the girl in the interest of her security.

The 20-year-old girl, a first year student at an engineering college in the heart of the city, was waiting for an autorickshaw at Jagdeo Path when the boy, identified as Ashish and also a student of the same college, approached her and allegedly began to trouble her.

“The boy had been trying to talk to the girl for quite some time. Today, when he approached her again, the girl asked him to leave her alone, which angered him and he started to misbehave. The girl raised an alarm and a few men moving along the area rushed to help,” a police officer at the Sachivalaya police station, where the girl has lodged a named complaint against the three boys, told The Telegraph.

The girl narrated what had transpired to the crowd which had gathered. The people then accosted Ashish and roughed him up, landing him a few slaps as well. He was given a warning by the people but the police were not informed.

“Once this happened, the girl got into an autorickshaw and moved towards Hartali Mor, around 4km from Jagdeo Path. The boy apparently knew about the girl’s routine and was sure that she would get down at Hartali Mor. He took another auto-rickshaw and went in the same direction and called up two of his friends, Ashutosh and Chandan, both students of St Dominic’s School, and asked them to reach Hartali Mor immediately. The girl was standing on the road when Ashish too arrived and very soon his friends also reached,” the police officer said on the basis of information provided by Ashutosh and Chandan, the two boys under detention.

The trio then surrounded the girl and, according to the police and some eyewitnesses, roughed her up and even slapped her in full public view.

“By chance, a Quick Mobile Service vehicle belonging to SK Puri police station was passing through the area then. The two officials inside saw what was happening and swung into action. They managed to catch hold of Ashutosh and Chandan but Ashish, the main culprit, somehow fled,” said the officer of Sachivalaya police station, under whose jurisdiction Hartali Mor falls.

The police said the detained youths were being questioned about their role and the whereabouts of Ashish, a resident of Anand Puri locality.