FARIDABAD: Haryanvi songs with hip hop beats playing in the background, a young boy places a phone on a platform, then pans it to an angle that will catch him in action. The camera now recording, he runs towards a group of youths raining blows on a cowering man. The boy pauses momentarily, looks back at the camera, then unleashes all his aggression on the man taking the blows.This is no shoot. The beating is real - done at the behest of anyone who wants a message sent or just for the local toughs to exert their writ in the area. On September 28 this year, this group attacked 15-year-old Daksh, who had visited a market in the citys Jawahar Colony to buy snacks with his childhood friend. The Class XI student succumbed to the grievous head injuries he sustained in the assault nine days later at a city hospital.Nine of his attackers were apprehended. Four of them are minors. Two among the nine were in the beating video posted on Instagram earlier in September and four others have been named in the FIR for murder. The one placing the camera is among those the police are still looking for.Locals say these youths have earned notoriety for flexing their muscles and beating up people at the slightest provocation. The reason can be anything - from an argument over payment of bills at local eateries to an old grudge. Some of them are law students, others are in schools. Their social media handles reveal a lot more about them than their CVs.Several videos posted on their Instagram accounts show these youths kicking and punching people. Since the police crackdown, some of the videos have been deleted and access to the Instagram handles restricted. The probe so far into the attack on Daksh indicates he and his friends had an argument with another group in school over sharing of seats. The attack on him came a few days later.After returning from tuitions on September 28, Daksh and his friend Yash had gone to the market near their home. Yash was attacked first and ran for cover. Daksh tried to speed off on his bike but the youths kept hitting him with sticks till he slumped to the ground. Passersby freed him, but the attackers left with a warning for the Class XI student: Well kill you if we meet you again.Daksh was treated at Fortis Hospital in the city for nine days. According to doctors, he underwent a six-hour surgery because his brain had shifted 4cm to the right. They had said he suffered "irreparable" damage to the brain and "would not have been normal again" even if he recovered from the injuries. Daksh succumbed to the injuries on October 7.Among the nine who were taken into police custody, one is a classmate of Daksh. "These are local goons. They will beat up anybody for any reason. At home, we tell our kids not to talk to them," a resident of Jawahar Colony who knew Daksh told TOI.Daksh, according to him, was not their "target" that day. "They were waiting for another student of his class who had a fight over sharing of seats. Daksh was merely a friend. So, when they saw Daksh in the market, they targeted him. One of the attackers was a classmate, but from another group," he added. The group would have probably made a video of them thrashing Daksh had others not intervened. "My younger brother happened to be passing by, saw what was happening and rushed to his rescue. Others too joined in to stop the attackers. Thats when they fled," said Dakshs father Vipin Mehndiratta, a supervisor at a warehouse in Delhi.Sub-inspector Chetan - the investigating officer in the case from Kotwali police station - said the youths would record videos of their attacks to increase their followers online. They didnt have too many. While four of the arrested youths have followers between 1,000 and 1,500 on Instagram, others have a base of around 800."We have seen some of these videos on social media. They are old posts. We have been questioning the teenagers to find out more about the attack on the schoolboy. We are scanning their phones as well," the SI said.Local traders take care not to pick up a fight with the youths, who, they say, are backed by influential people. "They break into fights at the slightest instance and show their dominance everywhere. They take items from my shop, but never pay. To avoid any confrontation, none of us dares them either," the owner of a fast-food joint said.The investigation into Dakshs murder has been transferred to the crime branch following a request by his family. "We were not satisfied with the way the case was progressing. Some of those apprehended by police have links with influential people like lawyers, politicians and builders. Fearing backlash, residents avoided lodging complaints against them, even if they were thrashed," his father said.Psychiatrist Ruma Bhattacharya linked violent behaviour offline to online influences. "Social media has now become an integral part of peoples lives, especially teenagers. They are constantly trying to put up content that would garner them more views and followers. They can go to any extent, even resort to violence. We have seen youngsters falling off cliffs and hit by trains while trying to take selfies. This is a dangerous trend," she said.

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