A 21-year-old man was allegedly assaulted by six persons, with around 60 others jeering from the sidelines, near Kulasekhar on Tuesday night. The assault, said Dikshit, the victim, was over his affair with a 17-year-old girl though both sides of the family had already decide on their marriage once the girl reached the age of consent.
According to Dikshit, around 10 p.m., while his parents were asleep in their house in Saripalla, around five men barged into the house and started thrashing him with sticks. When dragged outside, he said he saw several men, numbering “up to 60” jeering him. It was only a half-an-hour later that his brother could admit him to the hospital.
At the hospital, Dikshit told The Hindu that after the alliance with the girl was fixed, Vishwanath, the girl’s uncle, was “not pleased.” “He seemed to harbour a grudge. He and his gang, who often hang out at the local sports clubs at night, suddenly decided to assault me,” he said.
Having gone to the Mangalore Rural Police Station around 11 p.m., Dinesh, Dikshit’s brother, said the police initially refused to file a complaint, and instead pressed for a compromise. “They said it was my brother’s fault for having provoked an attack. Even though the accused were in the station, they did not arrest them or take them for questioning,” he said.
No arrests
Though the station has registered an FIR, no arrest has been made so far. Sudhakar, Sub-Inspector of the Station, denied that there were attempts to reach a compromise, while saying the facts had to be verified — as there was a counter complaint against the victim — before any arrest could be made.
