5 minors detained for attack on Swiss couple, raids on to nab others

AGRA: Uttar Pradesh police detained five minors on Thursday for the brutal attack on a Swiss couple in Fatehpur Sikri that had left them bruised and battered. A sixth accused, most probably also a minor, is absconding. Raids were carried out in some parts of UP to nab him. The trio have been charged under IPC sections 323 (causing voluntarily hurt) and 325 (causing grievous hurt).
The UP government and police faced criticism from various quarters a day after TOI reported the assault, which happened last Sunday when the couple, Quentin Jeremy Clerc and Marie Droz, were walking around Fatehpur Sikri
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who was in Agra on Thursday, said that the government was committed to safety of tourists. "The attackers won’t be spared," he said, adding, "The tourism police from now on will not be restricted to the Taj Mahal alone. We will not be lenient with anyone who misbehaves with tourists in UP. Our government will formulate a new strategy to provide security (to tourists)."
DGP Sulkhan Singh also expressed regret at the incident.
According to police, the minors were arrested after police made several raids in Agra and at the UP-Rajasthan border areas. Senior superintendent of police (Agra) Amit Pathak said, “We have detained the accused who, going by their physical appearance, seem to be minors. After a medical report, we will be in a better position to ascertain if anyone of them is adult. During questioning, the accused confessed that they had pelted stones at the Swiss couple.”
Some sources, however, said that while one of the accused is "17 years and six months old", the other, his elder brother, is over 18. The two hail from Jatuana village of Fatehpur Sikri.
In what some senior police officers found "strange", the FIR, a copy of which is with TOI, says the couple "were in bush engaged in PDA (public display of affection), when a group of children attacked them." In fact, DSP (rural west) Akhilesh Narayan Singh also said that the Swiss couple "were in a secluded area surrounded by bushes when the incident happened. It seems the accused saw them and foolishly attacked them".
The father of one of the boys said, “It was a highly stupid act by my younger child. He shouldn’t have done it. But police have wrongly detained my elder son, who had no role in it.”