An 18-year-old Dalit youth was allegedly beaten to death and his friend severely injured over his friendship with a minor girl from an upper caste community in the Pratapnagar block in New Tehri, Uttarakhand, police said on Monday (June 8, 2026).

The deceased, Ketan Lal, was a resident of Deval village.

His injured friend, Mr. Diwakar Dimri, was admitted to the district hospital in Baurari.

According to a complaint lodged by Ketan's father, Dhanpal Lal, the incident occurred on Sunday (June 7, 2026) night in Kholgarh village.

Ketan had reportedly been in a friendship with a girl from Kholgarh for the past six months.

On Sunday (June 7, 2026) at around 11 p.m., the girl called Ketan on his mobile phone and asked him to come to her village. Ketan went to Kholgarh with Diwakar Dimri.

When they both arrived, members of the girl's family locked them both in a room and assaulted them with sticks, the police said.

On Monday (June 8, 2026) morning, the girl's father called Mr. Dhanpal to inform him about his son's condition and asked him to take him back.

Mr. Dhanpal found his son covered in blood and rushed him to a community health centre in Chaund Lambgaon, where he succumbed, the police said.

Irate locals and the family initially refused to claim the body from the hospital and demanded immediate action against the assaulters.

Tehri Garhwal Senior Superintendent of Police Shweta Choubey said a case under the charge of murder and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was filed.

The police had detained for questioning one of the accused, Yashveer Singh Panwar, the SSP added.