Policeman's son thrashes woman in a viral video; held

The son of a policeman, who is seen beating and kicking a woman in a video that went viral on social media and TV channels, was arrested on charges of rape after he assaulted her in his friend's office in south-west Delhi, police said on Friday.

The arrest came after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh instructed Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik to take strict action against the culprit. Singh tweeted, "I have taken note of a video where a youth has been seen severely beating a woman. I have spoken to the Delhi Police Commissioner over the phone and directed him to take necessary action in this regard."

In the video, the young woman was seen dragged, thrown to the ground and repeatedly thrashed and kicked by one youth identified by police as Rohit Tomar (21), son of a Delhi Police personnel, inside his friend Ali Hasan's BPO. Tomar's friend, who filmed the incident allegedly at the behest of Tomar, is heard requesting him to stop the attack on her in the video.

At one point, a man is seen walking past the woman and Tomar while the thrashing was going on but he did not interfere.

The victim told police that Tomar called her to his friend's office in Uttam Nagar on September 2 and allegedly sexually assaulted her, a senior police official said. She claimed that Tomar started physically assaulting her when she told him that she will complain to the police.

Police also received another complaint from another woman who claimed that Tomar, who is a friend, showed the video of the thrashing to her and threatened her that she too will meet the same consequences if she did not listen to him. The woman in the video approached police only after the first woman, who is said to be Tomar's fiancee, went to cops.

The accused's father Ashok Singh Tomar is posted as an Assistant Sub-Inspector in the Narcotics Department of Delhi Police.