The boy’s parents had filed a complaint on Tuesday night, when he did not return from school.

According to police, Dhruv Singh was returning home from school when he was allegedly caught stealing iron rods at a construction site by the accused—Ravindra, Rajendra, Balwant, Surendra, Ramesh, Bhairon Singh, Bhupendra, Krishna Singh, Ram Lahote and Dhyan Singh..

He was taken to a site near the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, beaten up and harassed in a closed room for four hours before he was allowed to speak to his parents on the phone, police said.

“He was crying and asking us to pick him up from the Expressway. We thought he had been kidnapped,” the boy’s father, Pravin Singh, said.