The four accused have been identified, the police said (Representational)
Four men in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district allegedly beat up their friend severely on suspicion of being a police informer and filmed the assault, the police said.
The incident had taken place in July this year, but different videos of the brutal thrashing, including one set to Pakistani influencer Dananeer Mobeen's "Pawri ho rahi hai (a party is on)" audio surfaced only on Tuesday.
"We got the information on Tuesday about a video of a man being thrashed by his friends in July. An FIR has been registered against the four accused on the victim's complaint," Rewa's Superintendent of Police Navneet Bhasin told reporters on Tuesday.
The victim, Amit Pandey, told reporters that he was going to his native village when the accused - Prince Patel, Suraj Prajapati, Lalla Pandit, and Shadab - intercepted him in the night.
"They accused me of giving information to the police about the sale of 10 boxes of cough syrup (sold as a narcotic substance). They brutally beat me up for three hours. Later, they took me to Rewa and thrashed me again till morning," he alleged.
Meanwhile, five videos of the incident surfaced showing the victim being hit with sticks, slapped, and kicked.
In one of the videos, an accused was heard saying in a local dialect, "This is me; these are my friends and we are partying." As he says this, the accused start shouting and kicking Amit Pandey.
The four accused have been identified, Navneet Bhasin said, adding, two of them are already in jail (in other cases), another one has been detained and a search is underway for the fourth accused.