Kasaragod: A 37-year-old painter from Kanhangad claims a group of men drove him around all night, pepper-sprayed, assaulted, stripped, and filmed him, then threatened to release the footage on social media if he contacted police.

Shahad T A, from Kolavayal near Kanhangad, said the ordeal began around 9.45 pm on March 4 when Afsal, a local acquaintance, invited him for a ride. "I got into the car and he drove straight towards Uppala," Shahad said.
Uppala, on the northern edge of Kasaragod district near the border with Karnataka, is about 50 km from Kanhangad.

According to Shahad, when they reached there around 10.45 pm, he was asked to get into another car where four more men joined them. From that point on, he said, the night turned into a relentless cycle of violence. "They kept assaulting me in the car and outside till about six in the morning," Shahad said. "They punched my nose and beat me brutally. I kept asking them why they were doing this, but they never told me."

At times, they used a rod, striking his knees while he tried to shield his face and arms. He said they also sprayed pepper spray on him inside the vehicle. "I lost track of time and place," he said. "I could feel they were taking me to four or five different locations, beating me while the car was moving and again after stopping." Sometime in the middle of the night, Shahad said he managed to slip away from the gang and ran toward what he thought was a police jeep parked nearby.

"But they chased me down, recording me on their phones, and forced me back into their car," he said. As dawn broke, the vehicle pulled up near a ground in Uppala. Shahad said the men dragged him out, stripped him naked, and filmed him under the glare of the car's headlights. "They circled around me, taking videos,” he said. "Then they showed me the footage and said they would post it on social media if I complained to the police."

Shahad said the threat left him shaken and humiliated. "I have a daughter. I didn't want to embarrass her," he said. But his wife urged him to report the incident. With his face swollen from the assault, Shahad sought treatment at the District Hospital in Kanhangad on March 6, where doctors informed the police.

Based on his statement, officers from Hosdurg Police Station registered a case against Afsal and four other identifiable persons under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for voluntarily causing hurt (Section 115(2)), causing hurt with a dangerous weapon (Section 118(1)), criminal intimidation (Section 351(2)), and common intention (Section 3(5)).

Since the alleged assault occurred in Uppala, which falls under the jurisdiction of Manjeshwar Police Station, the case was initially registered as a zero FIR at Hosdurg and later transferred to Manjeshwar police for further investigation.

For Shahad, the night's events still replay in fragments. "I should not have got into Afsal's car," he said.