Three Arrested After Lucknow Mob Assault

Attempt to murder is the heaviest count in the police case, and an arrest on that count still has to be proved in court. The video is why the file moved. It does not identify every person in the crowd, and the search for the rest of the group is still open.

Lucknow police arrested three men after a video of a woman being tied up and beaten spread online from the Sugamau area of Indiranagar.

The woman is Lakshmi Rawat, who is from Barabanki. Police said she is mentally challenged. Her husband, Sandeep Rawat, said the couple had left home around 5 a.m. and that a group set on her near a poultry farm because people suspected she was trying to take a child. He told officers she had not tried to kidnap anyone.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Amol Murkut said three men were arrested and that investigators were still working to identify others. Police registered a case that includes attempt to murder, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, and intentional insult. Murkut said the recording was about five days old by the time it drew a wide audience. An inspector at the local station had first treated the assault as minor. Senior officers took the file once the video circulated.

Rawat was taken for medical treatment after the beating. Officers said they were questioning the men in custody and using the video to find anyone still at large. They have not announced a court date. The arrests and the case filing are the public account of the investigation. What a jury, or a magistrate, will make of the recording is still ahead.

The assault was reported in Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh. Police said other people were involved and that investigators are still trying to identify them. Officers have described the video, the husband's statement, and the medical treatment that followed the beating as the material they are working from. They have not said when the three men will be produced in court.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.