A day after a medical student was sexually assaulted and brutalised in Manipal, hundreds of angry civil society members in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi took to streets in condemnation of the attack.
Hundreds of students from various colleges and high schools participated in these demonstrations organised separately by the district units Campus Front of India (CFI), Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Girls Islamic Organisation of India (GIO), and students of St. Cecily’s School and PU College.
Members of the district Mahila unit of Congress submitted a memorandum to the Superintendent of Police demanding arrest of the culprits.
Tafsir, secretary of the State unit of the CFI said the incident was a blot on Udupi district. He urged the police to catch the culprits immediately.
Members of the district unit of ABVP blocked the Board School Road for some time and shouted slogans demanding the arrest of the attackers. They took out a procession from the Clock Tower to the District Police Office and submitted a memorandum addressed to Home Minister K.J. George.
Abhishek Jain, secretary of the city unit of ABVP, said the incident had made the civil society to hang its head in shame. It has created an atmosphere of fear among women, he said.
Members of the GIO held placards which read “Nirbhaya’s fate is nation’s fate”, “Justice delayed, justice denied”. They later took out a procession from the Clock Tower to the District Police Office.
Kulsoom Aboobakker, member of the editorial board of Anupama women’s journal, said the police should immediately arrest the culprits involved in the gang-rape. “The GIO is concerned about the health of the survivor of brutal rape. We express our solidarity with her and her family,” she said.
Nearly 800 students of St. Cecily’s Girls High School and PU College staged a dharna in front of the Taluk Office. Speaking on the occasion, Principal of Ct. Cecily’s Group of Institutions Rosy Mendonca, said that it was a shocking that such incidents were taking place in Manipal. The police and Government should adequate safety for women, she said.
In a memorandum submitted to the Superintendent of Police M.B. Boralingaiah, president of District Mahila Congress Committee Veronica Carnelio demanded that steps be taken to ensure that such incidents did not recur.
Members of the district unit of Students Islamic Organization of India staged a protest over the gang-rape incident at the Tiger Circle in Manipal.
ABVP protests
Our Mangalore Correspondent reports:
The Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on Saturday held a demonstration condemning the sexual assault on a medical student in Manipal.
The ABVP activists and college students blocked movement of traffic at the Besant College Circle. They said the police should arrest persons involved in the attack before they destroyed the evidence. The activists said the incident should be investigated thoroughly and the real culprits should not be allowed to escape as had happened in some earlier incidents in Dakshina Kannada. The ABVP will carry out demonstrations if there was any slackness in the probe.
The Dakshina Kannada District BJP said the incident exposed the failure of the government in providing safety to women. Instead of actng against persons involved in harassing women, the Government was thinking of reinvestigation into attacks on churches in 2008, said district BJP spokesperson R. Srikar Prabhu in a press release.
