While three men accused of stealing a motorcycle were brutally assaulted and one had his eye “gouged out” in Gaya district on Sunday, in nearby Nawada, two minors accused of stealing detergent packets from a shop were beaten up and paraded on the streets with their heads partly shaved.

According to reports, on Sunday evening, three youths intercepted Mahendra Prasad and looted his motorcycle at gunpoint near Sirdala in Nawada district and fled towards adjacent Gaya. Prasad immediately called up his relatives living nearby, who caught up with the youths near Telgee village in Gaya district and beat them up.

The right eyeball of one of the three, Pinku Singh, was allegedly gouged out by the mob. Later in the evening, Sirdala police rescued the youths, all in their late teens, from the village and admitted them in the local government hospital, after which they were sent to Nawada.

Rajauli Deputy Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar Singh, however, strongly denied reports that the eyes of the three had been gouged out by the mob or pierced with a sharp weapon. “They were brutally assaulted and, in the process, the right eye of one of them was badly damaged,” Singh told The Indian Express over phone.

He also added that all the three—Pinku, Guddu Singh and Saket Kumar—were known troublemakers. Two FIRs, one for the motorcycle theft and the other against unknown villagers, have been lodged, Singh said.

Nawada, Civil Surgeon, Sabitri Sharma too denied that any sharp weapon had been used to pierce the eyes of the three. She said that though the eyes of all of them were injured, the right eyeball of Pinku was hanging out, attached to an optical nerve. “All of them have been sent to Patna for treatment”, she added.

The second incident was reported from Nawada town. Shankar, alias Muthhu (12), working in the grocery shop of Shahulal, was allegedly caught red handed stealing detergent packets along with an accomplice, Budhna (13), on Monday morning. Local shopkeepers and others reportedly immediately started punching the two, followed by kicks. Muthhu and Budhna were later paraded through the market with their heads partly shaved.

No FIR in connection with the “theft” has however been lodged by shopowner Shahulal, perhaps fearing that he might himself land in a soup for employing child labour. Nawada town Police Station in-charge Arun Kumar said that an FIR has been lodged for assault on minors against shopkeepers Shahulal, Baidy-anath Shah ad Jitendra Shah. Shahulal is absconding.