Youth assaulted for ‘speaking to Hindu girl'

Puttur : A youth was allegedly assaulted and stripped by a group of 40 Hindu boys at Palthady in Puttur taluk on Saturday for speaking to a Hindu girl. He was admitted to hospital after the incident. Abdul Shameer, who works as an electrical engineer in Bangalore, went to his house at Kundhadka Chennavara village in Sullia taluk for Id-ul-Fitr on September 2. Mr. Shameer told media that when he was returning home from his sister''s house he met his schoolmate in Palthady around 3.30 p.m. and spoke to her for a few minutes. As they were leaving, three people alighted from a vehicle and asked him about his conversation with the girl. He told them that she was his schoolmate. Even the girl too maintained that they were schoolmates and went home, Mr. Shameer said. After she left, the trio made phone calls following which around 40 people rushed to the spot and began abusing him for speaking to the girl. They stripped his clothes and assaulted him mercilessly, he said.
There are conflicting accounts on how he arrived at the police station. According to Mr. Shameer, six of his attackers took him to the Puttur rural police station around 6 p.m. in a jeep. “They wanted me to stand on the footboard of the jeep. But I refused and sat inside. The rest followed the jeep in cars and motorcycles and waited outside the police station,” he said. Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao, however, said that the people who assaulted Mr. Shameer and those who brought him to the police station were different. “According to the complainant, he was brought to the police station by some people who intervened, after which a statement was taken from him, no group had been named in the FIR.” Mr. Rao said. The police have arrested Vinod, Harish, Prasanna, and Dileep in connection with the incident.