(Pavan M V, TNN )
MANGALORE: Just a day after additional director-general of police (law and order) MN Reddi issued a stern warning against individuals and groups involved in vigilantism in the coastal region, an instance of moral policing has been reported from Puttur, 50 km from here, on Thursday.
The accused – Suraj Shetty, Sachin Rai, Avinash R, and Chandra Singh — attacked Abdul Samad, 21, and his friend Mohammad Jallal,18, while they coming out of a restaurant with a couple of girls on Thursday afternoon. The incident took place on Panchavati Road around 2pm.
The four were arrested on Friday. The victims were allegedly slapped for treating the girls to lunch on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr in a restaurant in Puttur.
According to police, Abdul is pursuing his Master of Social Work at Srinivas College in Mangalore and Mohammad is a II year PU student. Police said the four youths allegedly slapped Abdul and Mohammad. After the incident, the four were absconding. In his complaint to police, Abdul said that the attackers questioned him for being seen with girls from a different community.
Puttur Town police have booked cases against the accused under section 143 – punishment for an unlawful assembly, section 147 – punishment for rioting, section 323 – punishment for voluntarily causing hurt, section 341 punishment for wrongful restraint, section 342 punishment for wrongful confinement, section 504 – punishment for intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace, and section 506 – Punishment for criminal intimidation, of IPC. The accused have been remanded to judicial custody.
