MEERUT: In a broad daylight-incident that shocked Meerut, a young college-going woman was dragged, beaten and abused by a group of men even as passersby looked on in disbelief. A video of the assault taken by someone in the crowd soon went viral, triggering a storm of protest online.

The woman, a student of law in Meerut College , told the police on Monday that she had begun working at a local guest house last year soon after her father's death. It was here, she said, that she was befriended by the owner, Subhash Bharti, with whom she later developed physical relations.

The attack, she told cops, came after she refused Bharti's request to have a test-tube baby.

“On February 3, while I was in the guest house, managers of Aman Hospital, which is located in the same building that houses the guest house, attacked me. The men who attacked me were Mohd Tamur, Nasir, Wajid Ahmad and Amit Kumar. They brutally beat me and dragged me out of the complex.”

The woman alleged that she was shoved into a car after the assault but as there were witnesses, her attackers threw her on the road and escaped. Strangely, though, it was Subhash Bharti who got her admitted to a local hospital. It was from the hospital that she contacted her college friends who took her to the SSP and showed him video clippings of the assault.

Police have filed an FIR and five persons, including Tamur, Murtaza, Subhash Bharti and two women, have been arrested.

CO (Civil Lines) Vandana Mishra, who is the investigating officer in the case, told TOI on Monday, “There is too much of confusion right now but we are investigating the case thoroughly. The woman says that Subhash Bharti compelled her to have his baby and when she refused he insisted that she have a test tube baby. Why the hospital managers were involved in the case, we still have to find out.”