College girl stripped and beaten in hostel for allegedly stealing mobile phone

A tribal father from the Indian state of Jharkhand has threatened to kill himself along with his daughter after she was reportedly stripped and beaten in her college hostel for allegedly stealing a mobile phone.

"What's the fate of my daughter now? How will she go to the college? How will she face the society? Who will marry her?" the farmer said, claiming that no one was coming forward to help them.

The incident that took place in Santhal Pargana Women's College in Dumka district on 4 August came to light after the video of the girl being thrashed went viral on social media.

In her complaint, the girl said that she had bought a second-hand mobile phone for Rs 500 (£6) but during that period one of her college mates had also lost her phone and accused the victim of stealing it.

Other girls from the college hostel also joined the accused and started assaulting her, the victim added. They also held a students' council inside the hostel and declared her the offender.

"Soon the crowd of students attacked me. They thrashed and stripped me calling me a thief. I saw a couple of girls filming the entire episode," the girl said in her compliant, the Hindustan Times reported.

The students' council even ordered her to pay a penalty of Rs 18,600, failing which they threatened to post the video on social media. After the incident, the victim left for her village and narrated the entire story to her father.

Her father then went to meet the hostel authorities and pleaded with the student leaders to give him some time to pay the fine. He also requested them not to circulate the video, but by then a few girls had already done so.

Dumka police superintendent Mayur Patel said police officials met the girl on Monday (7 August), and filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the accused.

"We are proceeding with the inquiry. I assure the guilty students would not be spared," Patel said. He added that officials have called the administrators of various WhatsApp groups to ensure that the video is deleted.