Man paraded for phone theft in UP, father-son duo arrested after video goes viral

In Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, a 50-year-old man and his 27-year-old son were arrested after a video showing a young man being publicly humiliated over alleged phone theft went viral on social media. The incident occurred on August 1, but no complaint was filed until Sunday. The accused, Raju and his son Raj, come from the upper caste, while the victim, Sonu, a 30-year-old from an Other Backward Class, was shaven-headed. Sonu and the accused are neighbors.

The police recovered one of the two mobile phones reported missing from Raju and Raj's house, but the other remains untraceable. According to the Station House Officer, Pradeep Kumar Singh, Sonu has two prior criminal cases registered against him. The incident began with a family suspicion that Sonu was responsible for the missing phones, as he had visited their house shortly before they disappeared on July 30.

Upon learning about this, Raju and his son started searching for Sonu. They allegedly learned that Sonu had been seen entering a now-closed general store. The father-son duo then went to the store, recovered one of the missing phones, and traced Sonu to Lucknow, bringing him back to their village on August 1. Instead of turning Sonu over to the police, they shaved his head and paraded him through the village. The accused have been charged with assault, intentional insult, criminal intimidation, and kidnapping.