Saharanpur, Dec 7 (IANS): Seven persons have been booked for tying a man to a pole and beating him up badly with sticks near Paramount Colony of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The accused suspected the 20-year-old man, identified as Mohd Rehman, of stealing iron rods from a construction site. The incident took place on Tuesday.

An FIR under sections 147 (rioting), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) of IPC has been lodged against seven persons at Sadar Bazar police station.

One of the accused, identified as Amit Sharma, has been arrested, said police.

A video of the entire incident was widely circulated on the Internet, following which police took cognisance of the matter and swung into action, said SP (city) Abhimanyu Manglik on Thursday.

"The matter is being investigated," the SP added.

Accused Amit Sharma is seen in the video beating the man and telling the others to beat Rehman properly, Manglik added.

Rehman, in his statement to police, said, "The accused caught me, and without listening to me tied me to a pole and started beating me."

In a 53 second video, a man is seen tied to a pole and beaten by a group of 5-7 people while many passersby stopped to witness the drama. The victim is seen begging for mercy but the accused kept on beating him.