13-year-old boy accosted, assaulted in Mangaluru

A 13-year-old boy was allegedly accosted and assaulted by two unknown persons on Monday evening in Mangaluru, about 350 km from Bengaluru, police said on Tuesday

A 13-year-old boy was allegedly accosted and assaulted by two unknown persons on Monday evening in Mangaluru, about 350 km from Bengaluru, police said on Tuesday.

A 13-year-old boy was allegedly accosted and assaulted by two unknown persons on Monday evening in Mangaluru. (Representative Photo)

“Two people approached the boy from behind pushed him, tore his clothes and fled. We are looking at all CCTV cameras and any other information that would help nab the suspects,” a senior official from Surathkal police station told HT.

The young boy, who studies in grade 8 at a Madrasa, was left shaken after the incident. The boy was returning home from Chakravarthi grounds when he was assaulted, the police officer said.

The incident comes at a time when tensions have been on the simmer in the coastal districts of Karnataka where the smallest sparks have in the past led to communal clashes.

The official said the boy was being questioned in the presence of his parents to get any details that would lead to nabbing the miscreants.

Police on Tuesday said they still do not have solid leads in the case and the young boy was too shaken to remember anything from the incident.

An FIR under section 320 of the IPC (any hurt which endangers life or which causes the sufferer to be during the space of twenty days in severe bodily pain, or unable to follow his ordinary pursuit) has been filed.

As per Karnataka communal harmony’s records, there have been 1,288 instances of communal violence including moral policing, cattle vigilantism and hate speech in this period, HT reported on April 8.

There have been over 18,000 riot cases in Karnataka since 2018.