Bengaluru: A lawyer bashed up his tenant, a 20-year-old student from North East, till he bled and made him kiss his boots for leaving the tap open and wasting water at his house in Hulimavu. The incident occurred on Monday.

The victim, Higio Gungtey, and his two roommates were scared to complain to the police as their house owner, Hemanth Kumar, was a lawyer. Helpline Northeast Solidarity learnt about the incident and brought it to the notice of the police, who registered a case.

Gungtey, from Arunachal Pradesh, is a fourth-semester student of Christ College, staying with his two roommates Mridupawan Bharali and Rajeev Ranjan Singh in a two-bedroom house on the third floor at SK Mansions for the past one year. The trio was paying Rs 12,000 per month and had given a deposit of Rs 60,000. Gungtey now refuses to go back to the house and is presently taking shelter at a local guardian’s house.

On Monday evening, a tenant on the fourth floor complained to the owner that water was getting over soon from their overhead tanks. The house owner, who was living away in Jeevan Bima Nagar, asked the fourth floor tenant to hand over the phone to any of the three in Higio’s house.

Kumar then started verbally abusing Gungtey for wasting water, despite him saying he had left the tap open only for five minutes. Kumar then came to SK Mansions and started beating up Gungtey. Bharali was slapped when he came to the victim’s rescue.

He was punched and kicked for one and half hours, Gungtey said in his complaint. “He (Kumar) kicked me on my stomach and his shoe came off. He asked me to bring the shoe, put it back on his foot and kiss it or else, he said, he would beat me more. I was already bleeding from my mouth. So, I had to kiss his shoe. Even then, he continued to beat me,” Gungtey told DH. Kumar threw Gungtey’s trolley from the third floor down to the ground, humiliating him before the neighbours.

The next day, after Northeast Solidarity helpline learned about the incident, it registered a complaint with Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Boralingaiah. “We have taken up an assault case against the owner,” said Boralingaiah.

(Source: Deccan Herald)