In what could be an instance of moral policing, the Fort Kochi police arrested four persons on charges of heckling and assaulting a young couple, who are engaged and about to be married shortly, on the beach on Sunday evening.
The arrested have been identified as M.A. Jaber, 34, B. Naufal, 32, Mohammed Ali, 36, and Abdul Riyas, 28, all hailing from Mattancherry.
They were produced before the court on Monday evening.
The police have registered a case invoking Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 294 (b) (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
“They were sitting on the concrete fortification around a tree on Fort Kochi beach. Two of the accused who were sitting nearby took offence to their intimacy and started heckling them. They wanted them to leave the place and the couple found it overbearing,” said inspector J. Raj Kumar.
The couple retaliated asking what was wrong in them sitting in a public place. The two accused did not take it kindly, and rang up their friends, asking them to reach the spot.
They beat up the man who later had to seek treatment at a hospital. The woman was also beaten, resulting in the police invoking IPC Section 354 against the accused.
