Twenty-seven-year-old Pawan Sah was on his way home from work on July 5. He was riding a bicycle at around 8pm along the Biratnagar Municipality-4 section of the Koshi Highway when he faced an unprovoked assault.

CCTV footage of the incident made public a couple of days after the incident shows 19-year-old Ayush Bhetuwal stopping and alighting from a car and walking towards Sah who is going in the opposite direction. Bhetuwal proceeds to punch Sah from behind. Sah topples over from the punch and falls flat on the ground. Bhetuwal then drags the injured Sah from the middle of the road towards the sidewalk and leaves him lying on the ground unattended.

The following day, on July 6, Sah filed an FIR against the perpetrator of the crime with the Morang District Police. Police arrested Bhetuwal the same day on charge of attempt to murder, according to Deputy Superintendent of Police Ranjan Kumar Dahal, also the spokesperson for the district police.

Arrest warrants have also been issued for 18-year-old Kushal Bhetuwal and 20-year-old Roshan Karki, who were in the car with Bhetuwal at the time of the incident. The two, however, are on the run.

“Sah was subjected to physical assault by Bhetuwal and two others who were with him in the car at the time of the incident. The trio, travelling in the opposite direction in a car, got out of the vehicle and beat Sah,” said Dahal.

The video clip of the assault has been circulating widely on social media platforms with the public calling out the aggressors and demanding strict legal action against them.

“The attack against Sah was unwarranted since the victim and the perpetrators had no prior relations or contact with each other,” Dahal told the Post. “The Morang District Court had extended the judicial custody of the accused by five days for investigation until July 11 midnight. We are on the lookout for the absconding duo.”