The police on Tuesday arrested three more persons in connection with the assault on young men and women at the Morning Mist Homestay here on Saturday.
With this, 15 people, of the 25 named in the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the police after the incident, have been arrested.
Varun (20) from Vamanjoor, Kiran Poojary (20) from Kaikamba Gurupura, and Puneet (19) of Kudupu were arrested from Varun’s house, said H.S. Venkatesh Prasanna, Police Inspector (in-charge), Mangalore East police station.
The three are residents of areas that are far away from the ‘homestay’. This runs contrary to the claim made by vedike State secretary Jagadish Karanth, who on Sunday said the organisation was not involved in the assault and it was carried out by residents of the area who were “outraged” by the “immorality and transgressions” of students at the ‘homestay’.
“Yes, it is true that those arrested are from places like Bajpe and Thokkuttu, which are far away from scene of the assault,” Seemant Kumar Singh, Police Commissioner, Mangalore, told The Hindu . He said only further investigations would reveal if there was any link between the arrested and the organisational participation of the vedike in the assault. Police investigation, said the Commissioner, was based on the call records and footage from closed-circuit television cameras installed in the area. “The footage (of the raid shot by mediapersons) will not be necessary as we have other sources of information. But, if needed, we’ll get it through the legal process,” he said.
On naming two mediapersons in the FIR, he said, “When the charge sheet is prepared, and if there is proof, we will book the mediapersons under sections that don’t include assault and violence against women. And if there is no doubt about their conduct, we will withdraw the cases.” With more arrests likely, the prohibitory order clamped in the Mangalore City Commissionerate limits had been extended by two more days — till 6 a.m. on August 2 — to prevent untoward incidents, Mr. Singh said.
