NSA invoked against Indore man accused of assaulting tribal student

The administration invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against one of the accused allegedly involved in torturing a 21-year-old tribal student in Indore last week, officials said.

The district administration on Friday invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against one of the accused allegedly involved in torturing a 21-year-old tribal student in Indore last week, officials said.

In a related development, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has issued notices to the authorities in Madhya Pradesh, seeking an action taken report (ATR) on the incident within three days, they said.

The commission has taken suo moto (on its own motion) cognizance of the incident -- that had triggered protests -- and issued notices of the Indore district collector and the city's commissioner of police, they added. Collector Manish Singh has issued an order stating that Saddam Patel (35), one of the accused, be kept in jail for his involvement in crime under the NSA, an official said. The NSA allows preventive detention of an individual for months if the authorities feel that the individual is a threat to the national security, and law and order. Patel, along with three others, was arrested on Monday on charges of attempt to murder and other offences for allegedly assaulting the tribal man, police said. As per the victim's complaint, his landlord and three others confined him to a house, beat him up, poured petrol in his private parts and then shot a video of his in the nude on July 9, they added. The victim, a student hailing from Alirajpur district, was living on rent along with his two sisters in the house of accused Nazim Khan. The latter suspected that the tribal man had extorted Rs 50,000 from his son and bought a laptop, police said.

On July 9, Khan took the victim out on the pretext of buying a goat, confined him to a house and assaulted him," they added. Right-wing organisation Hindu Jagran Manch and different tribal outfits had staged protests over the incident.