Police in Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar on Friday said that the attack on a 17-year-old Dalit teenager in Limbodara village on October 3 was staged, The Indian Express reported. Digant Maheria asked his friends to inflict wounds on his body to gain publicity, Gandhinagar Police said

“We set up three teams and investigated,” Gandhinagar district Superintendent of Police Virendra Singh Yadav said. “The forensic team found no blade at the spot, and the investigators could not trace the attackers or the vehicle.” A police press note said Digant Maheria’s father had admitted that his son had faked the attack. Yadav said the police would not pursue the case further.

The boy’s mother told The Indian Express that he would no longer attend classes at the educational institute he was enrolled in and would appear for his examinations separately. “I am not under any pressure from anyone,” Digant Magheria said. “I did it with the help of my friends. I do not know why.”

However, the father said Digant Magheria would testify in the case in which his cousin, Piyush Parmar, was attacked on September 25 for sporting a moustache . “The other boy who was beaten up is his first cousin,” he said. “The blade case could be fake but the other two cases are not.”

The attack on Parmar and another had triggered a social media campaign, where Dalit men sported moustaches to support the boy.