Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh), June 22 : A 15-year-old boy was beaten to death by three men after his buffalo damaged their sugarcane crop in the Sisaiya village in Shahjahapur. An FIR has been registered against the three people under section 302 (murder) of the IPC. The accused are on the run. Members of the boy's family, along with Samajwadi Party district president Tanveer Khan, staged a protest outside the office of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Shahjahanpur, alleging that the police were shielding the accused. The incident was reported on Saturday evening when the boy, Kuldeep Yadav, was playing with his friends and his buffalo entered the sugarcane field of farmer Sadhu Singh and his brother Dharmendra Singh. Sadhu and Dharmendra were reportedly inebriated and caught the buffalo and refused to return it to the boy. An argument took place and Dharmendra, his son Bhupinder, and Sadhu started beating Kuldeep brutally with sticks until he fell unconscious. Thereafter, the accused fled the spot. Kuldeep's father Mahesh took his son to a hospital in the Shahjahanpur city. Kuldeep's condition was critical and he succumbed to injuries on Sunday. His mother Rani Devi fell ill after hearing the news and is in hospital. Station House Officer (SHO) Jag Narain Pandey said, "We have registered an FIR under the section 302 (murder) and the accused will be arrested soon." He said that the motive behind the murder could be election-related rivalry. /IANS