MANGALURU: The Puttur unit of the Puthila Parivara, a fanbase of Hindutva leader Arun Kumar Puthila, held a padayatra and protest meeting in Puttur on Monday seeking justice in 2012 murder case of a girl student.
Holding saffron flags, placards and the portrait of a student who was raped and killed in 2012, Puthila’s followers participated in large numbers in the protest programme seeking a re-investigation into the case.
Addressing the gathering, Puthila, who had contested as a BJP rebel candidate in Puttur in the assembly elections held in May, said that the culprit behind the rape and murder of the student should be punished severely, or else, intensive protests may lead to the collapse of the government in the state.
"Such heinous crimes should not recur in future. The girl student was raped and murdered while she was returning home from the college. The CBI court has delivered a verdict acquitting the lone accused Santhosh Rao. The question still remains unanswered as to who the culprit is. We stand united today, forgetting the caste and political bias, only to seek justice in the case,” he said.
"The government should form an SIT to conduct a reinvestigation into the case. All police officers, who were part of the investigation immediately after the murder, should be brought under the purview of the reinvestigation. We are confident that the girl student will get justice only if the reinvestigation focuses on those officers. The government should not hesitate to expedite the process of reinvestigation or else it may collapse abruptly," he warned.
"The real culprits should be arrested and hanged to death", he said.
"We are ready to hold massive protests if the government does not take initiative to arrest the real culprit," he added.
A delegation, led by Puthila, submitted a memorandum to the government through the assistant commissioner of Puttur.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
