Angry residents of an apartment complex in Bengaluru beat up a food delivery agent on the basis of a false complaint made by an eight-year-old girl. The incident unfolded on the morning of June 12, when the girl’s parents returned to their seventh-floor apartment in Electronics City and found her missing, according to a Times of India report.
A viral thread by a Twitter user named Shweta reveals more details about the incident. According to Shweta, the girl’s parents panicked and began searching for her when they could not find her. As neighbours joined in the search for the eight-year-old girl, they soon spotted her on the building’s terrace.
“An 8-year-old girl child was home alone. Parents had gone to drop her sibling to school. When they came back, the child was nowhere around. Parents raised the panic button and everyone started searching her. They found her on terrace and she was crying,” Twitter user Shweta revealed.
The girl informed her parents that a food delivery agent had rang the doorbell and dragged her to the terrace. She said she struggled and managed to bite his hand to free herself.
Alarmed, the girl’s parents and other residents lined up all the delivery agents in the complex at the time and asked the girl if she could identify the accused. Security guards were asked not let any delivery agents enter or leave the complex.
The girl identified a man who, according to her, had dragged her to the terrace. The angry couple, their neighbours and security guards then banded together to beat him up and locked him in a room, believing that he had tried to molest the minor.
However, the truth about the incident was revealed only two days later, when police checked CCTV footage from a neighbouring paying guest accommodation. The CCTV footage revealed that the girl had gone to the terrace alone, contrary to her claims of being dragged there forcibly.
It turned out that the girl had gone to the terrace to play and cooked up the story about the delivery agent because she was scared her parents would beat her for playing when she was supposed to be studying.
Upon being questioned, she confessed that she made up the story when she saw the commotion she caused. “She is barely 8 yrs. old. She cooked up the story of being kidnapped by a delivery guy. She lied about him taking her to terrace forcefully,” the Twitter user wrote.
Meanwhile, the food delivery agent accused by the girl said he was thankful that Bengaluru police managed to find video evidence proving his innocence. “Every person accompanying the couple beat me up, along with the security guards. Don't know why she made the false claim,” the 30-year-old food delivery agent told Times of India.
The girl’s parents could not believe their eyes when they were shown the CCTV footage. They later apologised to the delivery agent, who told them: “My daughter is around five years old and I can understand your trauma. I don't have anything personal against you all, but I felt sad when people beat me up even after said I was innocent and the girl is lying.”
The unnamed delivery agent declined to file a counter-complaint against the couple, saying that he would soon be moving back to Assam with his family.
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