Cops: Four held for assaulting interfaith couple in Mangaluru

According to police, four men, aged between 20 and 29, allegedly assaulted a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl while they were sitting at a park under Kadri police station limits.

Mangaluru police have arrested four people for allegedly assaulting and threatening an interfaith couple on Wednesday evening, officials said.

Mangaluru police have arrested four people for allegedly assaulting and threatening an interfaith couple on Wednesday evening. (Agencies/Representative use)

According to police, four men, aged between 20 and 29, allegedly assaulted a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl while they were sitting at a park under Kadri police station limits.

The men were identified as Yashwith of Kadaba, Sharath of Chikkamagaluru, Dheeraj of Alape and Abhijit of Bantwal, all members of the Bajrang Dal, police said.

Police said the accused found the interfaith couple sitting in the park and questioned the boy why he was befriending a Hindu girl and assaulted him. When the girl tried to stop them, the men also assaulted her, police said.

“The boy and girl are from the north Karnataka region and had pursued education here. Followed by the complaint of the couple, Kadri police registered a case and arrested all four accused,’’ Mangaluru city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar told HT.

The four were booked under sections 323 (assaulting), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentionally insult), and 506 (threatening with life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and produced before a court, which remanded them to judicial custody of 14 days, he added.

The coastal Dakshina Kannada is a communally sensitive area, and in recent times, the number of moral policing cases is on the rise.

In the last three months, eight moral policing cases were booked in various police stations in Dakshina Kannada.

Shashi Kumar said, “We will not allow such incidents to take place any more. Police took stringent action against the accused in all cases, but still, such cases are reported. No one has the right to snatch others’ freedom, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.”