A 14-year-old boy was critically injured after being allegedly beaten up for stealing mangos from an orchard in West Bengal's Hooghly district, police said on Saturday.

The incident happened in Konnagar on Friday, leaving the boy with a fractured bone under his nose, bruises around his eyes, and deep cuts in several places on his body, suspected to have been caused by spiked sticks, they said.

He is at present being treated at a hospital in Kolkata, they added.

Police said the owner of the orchard, Mrinalkanti Duttagupta, was interrogated along with other members of his family.

"An investigation is underway, and whoever is involved in such torture will be prosecuted," an officer of the Chadannagar Police said.

Duttagupta denied having done anything to the boy.

"Someone else outside our compound might have beaten him up, in which we did not have any role. I also submitted evidence to the police who visited our house in this regard," he claimed.

The incident comes days after a viral video showed a teenage boy being beaten up in Maheshtala in the South 24 Parganas district over suspicion of mobile theft.

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