Around six youths assaulted a 22-year-old tribal man, urinated on him, made videos and left him by the roadside believing him to be dead in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district.

The attackers posted the video of the incident, which took place at Chilkadada village under Shakti Nagar police station, on social media on Wednesday morning while declaring that it was a message for others to fear them.

The victim belongs to the Kharwar tribe who are mostly small farmers. Police said the attackers and their family members were mostly engaged in the real estate business. They have a criminal past and work for local political leaders.

In the first two-minute video, the youths are seen carrying lathis and revolvers and the victim is seen sitting on the ground with blood all over his neck. Two of the attackers are seen urinating on the victim while the rest keep kicking him and beating him with sticks. The tribal youth is seen begging for his life but the attackers continue making reels and abusing him. One of the attackers is heard saying: “Don’t ever try to bully us.”

The police said they had arrested one of the accused, identified as Ankit Bharati, and were looking for the others. The incident took place five days ago but the police didn’t know about it because the victim’s brother had taken him to a hospital in Waidhan, 25km from Shakti Nagar, in adjoining Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh.

Shakti Nagar circle officer Amit Kumar told reporters that he had gone to meet the victim’s family on Wednesday. He said the incident took place on September 26 and some of the attackers belonged to the Scheduled Caste.

“The police officers visited the village and met the family members of the victim. The elder brother of the victim has submitted an application on the basis of which we have registered a case of attempt to murder and arrested one attacker. Police teams are looking for other criminals,” said Kalu Ram, additional superintendent of police of Sonbhadra.

The victim’s elder brother told reporters: “In our area, there are some politically affluent people whose children attack the members of the ST community every day. They badly injured my brother. We took him to a private hospital in Waidhan where he is still under treatment.”