Daijiworld Media Network - Beltangady
Beltangady, Jul 18: A day after the moral policing incident in which a young man and a girl, belonging to the same community, were mobbed by over 50 persons at Ujire here, the police on Thursday July 17 revealed the identities of four persons arrested in connection to the incident.
The accused are Gopal (32), a resident of TB Cross in Laila here, Ajith Kumar (23), a resident of Mani in Bantwal, Suresh Salian (22) from Valpady in Moodbidri, and Lingappa Naik (37), a resident of Machar Ujire. A few more are understood to have been arrested, but their identities have not been divulged yet.
They have been booked under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 307 (attempt to murder), 153/A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code.
The incident occured when the 19-year-old girl, who had come for her sister's admission at a college, was waiting for the bus at Ujire along with a 23-year-old youth. The mob, assuming them to be lovers belong to different communities, surrounded them and began questioning about their identities and allegedly harassed them. The police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control, and booked cases against five persons. The complaint was lodged by the youth.