In yet another case of vigilante attack in the coastal belt, a group of youngsters allegedly attacked a man and a woman from different religions who were riding together on a motorcycle in Kadaba police station limits of Dakshina Kannada last week. The police are on the lookout for the four attackers.
According to the Kadaba police, Balaraj, 48, a rubber tapper from Kudlur village near Kadaba, was riding from Uppinangady to Kudlur with a 48-year-old Muslim woman hailing from Somwarpet. The woman was on her way to work in the farm of the rubber tapper’s friend in the same village. As the friend could not pick her up from Uppinangady, he had sent Mr. Balaraj to bring her to his farm.
While the two were on their way, the rear tyre of the motorcycle deflated at Golitadhi and Mr. Balaraj took the vehicle to a nearby workshop. As the vehicle was being attended to, a group of four Muslim youth gathered and started questioning the woman and Mr. Balaraj on why they were together.
Even though they explained where they were headed to, the youth allegedly beat them up and fled from the spot when the police arrived. The woman filed a police complaint and the youth have not been identified as linked with any organisation so far, the police said.
Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police Bhushan Gulabrao Borase said the police have registered a case under Section 354 (assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code against the four attackers.
This is the tenth vigilante attack reported in Dakshina Kannada since 2015 and the second under Kadaba police limits. On February 21, Hindutva activists caused a ruckus over three girls from an engineering college in Mysuru staying in the house of their Muslim classmate in Kadaba.
