Lying on the hospital bed at Brahmavar, with injuries on his back, leg and hand, 20-year-old Akshaya Devadiga was still in a state of shock. While he was assaulted at Karjike by a group of Hindu Jagarana Vedike activists, BJP worker Praveen Poojary, whom he was with, was killed for transporting four cows in a van on Wednesday night.
Narrating the horrific turn of events to The Hindu , Mr. Devadiga said he was only travelling with Praveen, and he was not even aware from where exactly the cows had been picked up.
It was near Karjike that a group of about 20 activists stopped the vehicle and demanded information about the cows. “There were two other people in the van, who jumped out and ran away at this point… The group asked whether the cows were being transported to a slaughterhouse and to whom the van belonged. Praveen said that it was not his vehicle but that of one of those who had run away.”
The activists insisted Praveen was transporting the cows to an abattoir, even as he contradicted them. “They then dragged us out of the van and started beating us with steel rods. I pleaded with them but they continued to rain blows,” Mr. Devadiga said. He recalled how Praveen begged: “Please leave me. I am dying…. Please let me explain.” But, it had no impact on the assaulters.
“They even refused him water. I managed to give him some even though I was severely injured.” “The activists then put us both in the back of the same van along with the cows. One of them drove the van for some distance, and then called the police. The police came and shifted us to the hospital,” he recounted.
Mr. Devadiga said he did not know the assaulters. “I do not even know whether Praveen was with the BJP, as I do not follow politics,” he said.
