Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi
Udupi, May 17: A chicken stall owner was allegedly assaulted by seven persons at Hoode here on Saturday May 17, for no apparent reason.
Mohammed Ais (42), a resident near Hoode fish market was allegedly assaulted by the group. He was later admitted to Ajjarkad hospital.
Mohammed runs a chicken stall and has a catering business too.
It is said that on Saturday evening, seven persons came in four bikes and barged into his stall and reportedly assaulted him with soda bottles. When he tried to escape, one of them caught him while the others attacked. He somehow managed to free himself and ran for his life.
Mohammed said that while being chased, the attackers even pushed his 10-year-old daughter aside.
Of the seven persons, Mohammed identified two as Nithin Poojary Hoode and Ganesh. The other five were unknown to him, he said.
Mohammed said he did not know the motive behind the attack, but in his statement to the media, expressed suspicion that the minor tension that prevailed during BJP's victory rally on May 16 in Hoode may have been the reason.
He further said that following the tension at Hoode during the victory celebration a person by name Fahad called MLA Pramod Madhawaraj and then district incharge minister Vinay Kumar Sorake, but when they did not respond, he called KPCC secretary M A Ghafoor who asked the police to tighten the security at Hoode. However, Mohammed complained that though police personnel were present at the time of the attack on Saturday, they did not come to his rescue.
Mohammed said that at the time of the incident, he had just prepared food at a cost of Rs 50,000 as part of his catering business for a nearby school, but as shards of broken soda bottles fell into the vessels containing the food, it all went waste, he said.
Malpe police have registered a case in this regard.