Members of the district unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) protested in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Monday condemning the assault on a party worker in Belthangady recently.
The protesters demanded a fair, in-depth inquiry into the incident, and the arrest of the remaining accused.
On January 17, B.M. Bhat, advocate and CPI(M) taluk secretary, and two others were assaulted by a group of men.
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According to Mr. Bhat, a group of around 10 people dragged them out of the car at an isolated spot near Kashibettu, and started thrashing them on Thursday evening. Mr. Bhat was admitted to the hospital and discharged a day later. A case was filed at the Belthangady police station, and two of the four accused were arrested.
Describing the assault, Mr. Bhat said his face was swollen and badly bruised as the group repeatedly rained blows on him. Lawrence, taluk secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and Sumalatha from DYFI were also targeted.
Calling the incident a handiwork of “BJP goons”, B. Madhava, District Secretary for the party, said the police not only had to arrest the remaining accused, but also had to find out who sent the goons to rough up CPI(M) workers.
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“It is obvious that the assault is politically motivated. For three days before the assault, CPI(M) workers, through protest, demanded that five cents of land be allocated to landless farmers. The Assistant Commissioner has even assured that the land will be allocated.
Enraged that the credit for this will go to CPI(M), the BJP workers have attacked those behind the protest,” he said.