Udupi; Nov 26: It has been reported that the president of the gram panchayat at Kote village in the district was allegedly assaulted by a circle inspector of police following altercation over lowering the national flag on Sunday night.
Kote GP president Prashanth Jathanna said he was assaulted by the kaup circle inspector Sunil Nayak on the GP premises. He explained that it had been a tradition in the GP office to lower the national flag every evening.
He claimed his driver noticed that the national flag had not been lowered after dropping him home around 11 pm on Sunday. I advised him to take a photo of the flag and then lower it. When he was taking photo, a police patrol team arrived there. When my driver informed about the police team’s arrival, I rushed to the spot.Nayak used foul language and assaulted me,he said.
Prashanth was admitted to the mission hospital.
Karkala deputy superintendent of police Annamalai defended the inspector when he was asked to respond to the allegations. He said Nayak had instructed the GP president and his driver to lower the flag. They confronted Nayak without valid reason, he said.
The entire members of gram panchayat complained against PCI Sunil Kumar and demanded for his suspension.
