The Surathkal police have arrested five persons, including the Bajrang Dal district chief, for the alleged act of moral policing as they waylaid three medical students and assaulted them near the NITK toll plaza on NH 66. The accused were later released on station bail.
The accused are Preetam Shetty, Bajrang Dal district pramukh, Arshit, Bajrang Dal head of Surathkal region, Srinivas, Rakesh, and Abhishek. The police have booked cases under Sections 323, 341, and 504 of the Indian Penal Code for offences of causing hurt, wrongful restraint, and breach of peace against them on the complaint by a student of MBBS at K.S. Hegde Medical College, Deralakatte, here.
City Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar confirmed the arrest of five persons.
In his complaint, the student said he and two of his friends, one male and another female, were returning from a day’s trip to Manipal and Malpe to Mangaluru on Sunday evening in his four-wheeler. At around 6.30 p.m., unknown people riding motorcycles waylaid the vehicle near NITK toll plaza and inquired their names and religion. Thereafter, the accused assaulted them and abused them.
In a video clip that went viral on social media on Monday, a group was seen waylaying a four-wheeler occupied by the students as it suspected the men and the woman to be belonging to different communities and questioned them.
However, a traffic police inspector of the city police in mufti who was trailing the victims’ vehicle, intervened to prevent the group from causing further harm.
‘Minor sections’
The Dakshina Kannada district unit of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) on Tuesday said the police had booked minor cases against the accused, belonging to the Bajrang Dal, and released them on bail.
District president B.K. Imtiyaz and secretary Santosh Bajal in a statement here urged the police to invoke stringent provisions against the accused and arrest them again. The incident has exposed chinks in the law and order situation in the district, the DYFI said, adding that the BJP and the Bajrang Dal were using unemployed youth for illegal acts of moral policing. They said moral policing, illegal sand extraction, and other mafia were on the rise in the district.
