Mohan Kuthar
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Nov 24: A large gathering of activists from various Hindu organizations as well as some BJP leaders gathered in front of Ullal police station on Sunday November 23, urging the police to release people they had taken into custody relating to the disappearance of a girl student from Kotekar near here. The activists said that those confined to the police station were innocents.

The 19-year-old girl named Insha had married a boy named Bharatraj, a bus conductor from Ira village. Following a complaint from the girl's father alleging kidnapping, the police had summoned Someshwar gram panchayat member, Lata, and her husband, who reportedly provided support for the said marriage. The police also taken into custody parents of some youth, who had reportedly helped Bharatraj to take the girl with him.

BJP leaders and Hindu activists demanded for the release of people arrested by the police. They said the police action in taking into possession the mother and grandmother of a youth named Rahul, who has been accused of supporting the said elopment defies logic.

The Hindu activists said that the Ullal police had failed to detect the persons involved with several incidents in Ullal during the last some months, but had acted with extraordinary zeal relating to this case. They pointed out that the police had not followed the above yardstick when M C Bava from Chembugudde, accused of involvement with illegal cattle trafficking and running slaughterhouse. When Bava escaped, the police had not taken his family members into custody, they said. They expressed anger at the policy of the police in having different policies for people belonging to minorities and Hindus.

The activists were particularly angry at the police for making the mother and grandmother of one of the accused, Rahul, to spend long time inside the police station, in spite of the fact that both of them are suffering from ill health. They alleged that the police are unnecessarily harassing innocent people.

Several BJP leaders and people's representatives held discussions with police for about three hours. It is said that the police promised them to release the women who were taken into custody relating to the said case by evening. When BJP and Hindu outfit leaders came out after discussions, the activists urged them to tell the police in no uncertain terms that innocent people have to be released forthwith. Some of them even engaged in verbal altercation with the police.

Meanwhile, the girl left behind a note to her parents stating that she had married the boy out of her own will as she loved him, and that no one had helped or put pressure on her.