Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested four more men for allegedly tying a Nigerian man to a pole and thrashing him brutally with sticks after he allegedly attempted to burgle a house at Savitri Nagar in Malviya Nagar area of South Delhi on 24 September.

Soon after a video went viral on Monday ~ which showed an African-origin man, identified as Ahmed, 26, tied to a pole and being thrashed with sticks by a group of men, with no local coming for his rescue ~ the police had filed a case under Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against his attackers and arrested one of them, Krishan Kumar, in whose house Ahmed had allegedly entered to commit burglary.

Following the alleged burglary incident on 24 September, Ahmed had been arrested and has been in judicial custody since then.

The case took another turn after the disturbing video surfaced on 9 October. Ishwar Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Delhi, confirmed the arrest of altogether five accused locals who had allegedly thrashed Ahmed.

He said, “After analysing the video, a case was registered for ‘attempt to murder by culpable homicide’ against the people found assaulting Ahmed. Krishan Kumar, complainant against Ahmed, was arrested first from his house at Savitri Nagar. By midnight others were arrested too.”

On Tuesday, the four arrested men were produced in a court and were sent to judicial custody. They were identified as Sanjay, Kamal Kant, Mahavir and Mukesh.

Singh said Ahmed was not cooperating in the police investigation. “Ahmed has not confirmed any assault on him. He did not say a word about it. Might be he is in mental trauma or depression. Still, the video shows presence of lot of people around him. We are examining the video and investigating through local intelligence to identify other people who were involved,” the DCP said.

He further said : “It was through the video that we discovered about this assault. Till then, neither Ahmed nor any local gave any hint about it. We wonder why Ahmed is not revealing about the assault on him. Even today, while questioning, he did not confirm any assault on him. The video also raises serious doubts on the allegation of burglary for which Ahmad was arrested. We will question Ahmed and others to know the truth. As of now, the video has changed the case. Ahmed, who was accused of burglary, is now the victim of assault.”