A high level inquiry has been launched by the Police into an incident on the Sinhala/Hindu New Year day where a 12-year-old boy was allegedly stripped naked and mercilessly assaulted by a group of drunken policemen attached to Seeduwa Police Station.

Sources said that the National Child Protection Authority would be informed about the incident.

Eye witnesses to the incident said that the boy had been stopped by a group of drunken uniformed policemen when he was cycling on the road. They had ordered him to strip in front of the crowd that had gathered and when the boy refused to comply the policemen themselves removed the boy’s clothes and severely assaulted him.

They said when the boy’s mother on hearing of the incident rushed to the scene and pleaded with the police not to assault the boy, the cops in a drunken stupor had threatened to rape her.

Two of the victim’s friends who arrived at the scene to rescue him were also brutally assaulted by the same group of policemen, they said.

However, Police Spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunasekera denied the assault and said there was no complaint lodged to that effect. When contacted, officers of the Seeduwa police refused to comment on the incident.

However, some officers of the Seeduwa police station said that there was an altercation between two rival factions and when the police arrived at the scene to settle the dispute they were pelted with stones.

Another version of the police is that some people were gambling in a public place and when the police raided the place they attacked the policemen.The people in the area dismissed claims by the police as "Sheer bunkum" and said these were attempts by the police to cover up their folly. They said that a complaint lodged about the assault.

Reliable sources said that some top brass of the police had contacted the aggrieved party to withdraw the complaint.

Several attempts to contact IGP Jayantha Wickramaratne were of no avail and the usual response from his subordinates was that he was "not available".

Chairman of the Child Protection Authority, Jagath Wellawatte, too, was not available for comment yesterday.