A video has gone viral on social media wherein a group of men are seen hurling expletives and thrashing a boy in the middle of the road. “Pranam kaahe nahi kiya re madarch*d,” (why didn’t you greet me) the accused is heard shouting while thrashing the victim.
"Parnam kaahe nahi kiya re Madh**d!"
— Treeni (@_treeni) August 29, 2023
Dhanbad, Jharkhand: Ranveer, the son of a Congress leader Ranvijay Singh, brutally beat a student with the butt of a pistol for not touching his feet. An FIR has been registered after immense pressure. pic.twitter.com/VjdrTfg4xc
According to media reports, the youth who is seen mercilessly blowing punches and kicks at the victim, is Ranveer Singh, the son of Jharkhand Congress leader Ranvijay Singh. The victim has been identified as a seventeen-year-old youth named Akash Singh. Akash studies in Class XI at Dhanbad’s Delhi Public School.
Akash Chandel, whose father has filed a police case against Ranveer Singh and his associates in the Saraidhela police station has said that Ranveer Singh and his bodyguards kidnapped him and beat him with hockey sticks and pistol butt and also threatened his father.
He said ‘We feel like beating you’: Victim narrates how Congress leader’s son attacked him
In the video, at least five people, including a man in a white kurta, can be seen shouting abuses, blowing punches and kicking the victim, whose face cannot be seen in the video. Minutes later the victim appears in the video and narrates what transpired with him.
Recalling the horrifying incident, Akash Singh said he had finished a tuition class and was standing outside a shopping complex in the town’s Koyla Nagar area.
“We (Akash and his friends) were just waiting there when six-seven cars, Ranveer Singh’s cars, drove up. The car number was 0027. 20-25 people came out and grabbed me, asking, ‘Why don’t you do pranam?’ I refused and then they started beating me… they said ‘We feel like beating you’.”
Giving further details of the unprovoked attack Ranveer Singh and his men launched at him, Akash said that they then forced him into one of the cars and took him to a nearby tea shop, where they continued to beat him. “At the tea shop, one of the bodyguards grabbed me and forced me to fall at Ranveer Singh’s feet. Then they took my phone and called my father to threaten him.”
‘Looks like a fight between the boys’: Congress leader defends his son, trivialises the assault
Ranveer Singh’s father has denied any involvement of his son in the incident and referred to it as a ‘conspiracy to defame his rising political stature.’ The Congress leader further said in his son’s defence that Ranveer Singh cannot be seen in the video. He added that the film’s authenticity should be investigated by forensic scientists.
“First I want to question the authenticity of this video… I have been told of it but let me tell you, you cannot see, from any angle, that this is my son. I have investigated on my own… but there also needs to be a forensic inquiry into the video… it may have been edited,” Ranvijay Singh told the media.
When asked to comment on the accusations levelled at his son, the Congress leader said, “Anyone can accuse anyone else… there are accusations against me also. But this needs to be investigated to see what happens. I am not worried by incidents like this and will continue doing my work… this looks like a fight between boys.”
Jharkhand Congress leader Ranvijay Singh
According to Ranvijay Singh’s X profile, he is a Congress leader from Jharkhand. He is also the state vice president of Hind Mazdoor Sabha and the General Secretary of Bihar Janta Khan Mazdoor Sangh.
Notably, Ranvijay Singh made it to the headlines in the year 2021, when an FIR was filed against him based on a complaint lodged by a contractor named Babur Ali who accused the Congress leader of threatening him and assaulting him with an intention to kill.
Babur, who then worked in Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) has alleged that the company had procured an order from an outsourcing company named Hilltop Highrise for coal mining and transportation next to the minister’s house in Sijua in Dhanbad. He alleged that in order to extort money and establish his supremacy in the aforementioned outsourcing company, the Congress leader called him to his house where he threatened and assaulted him and warned him against supervising the outsourcing contract. Flaunting his political power and clout, the Congress leader had reportedly told Babur that he would have to face dire consequences had he not accessed to his demands. “We are in power in the state, police will not be able to help you,” Babur accused the Congress leader of telling him.
Besides, Ranvijay Singh’ had also emerged in the infamous coal trader Pramod Singh murder case of Dhanbad. The trader was shot near his home in Dhansar police station area of Dhanbad on October 3, 2003. The Congress leader was one of the several leaders who were co-accused in the case. In 2022, after 19 years of trial, Ranvijay Singh was acquitted by the court.
