The city police arrested three persons belonging to a right-wing group on the charge of assaulting two college students from different communities near Manasa Water Park at the Dr. Shivaram Karantha Nisargadhama in Pilikula near Mangaluru on Tuesday.
Two first-year students from a PU college in Aikala, near Kinnigoli, had been to the water park with two boys from a degree college run by the same management. One of the two boys was a Muslim. All four came to the park in a car around noon. A group of youngsters belonging to a right-wing group then began assembling at the park, allegedly with a plan to attack them.
Assault before police
The police, who were alerted about this, arrived at the park soon. However, even as the girls were being escorted by police personnel to their vehicle, one of the assembled youngsters hit a girl. One of the boys, who was by then being escorted by the Kavoor police inspector, was also assaulted. The police immediately took the perpetrator, Sandeep Shetty, into custody.
Police Commissioner T.R. Suresh said the police have arrested Shetty and two others, identified as Varada and Dinesh, following a complaint filed by the mother of the girl who was hit. The Kavoor police have registered a case under sections 355 (assault or criminal force with intention to dishonour a person), 341, 342 (wrongful restraint), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. The youths have also been booked under Section 74 (1) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, Mr. Suresh said
According to the police, Shetty has been involved in some criminal cases registered in Kavoor and other police stations in the city.
Muneer Katipalla, State president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India, said it was unfortunate that right-wing workers had assaulted the students in the presence of the police. He said this showed the “miserable condition” of the police in Mangaluru.
