Commando who was heckled died in mishap,‘no foul play’

The arrested men,Nazeer,Imran,Feroz,Imran,Shamshuddin,Riyaz and Kunjimon,have been charged under IPC Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and Section 341 (wrongful restraint),Mangalore police officials said. “Though preliminary evidence showed that it was an accident,we investigated it further on the basis of a complaint from the man’s niece. The investigation has shown that there was no foul play in the death. The post-mortem report and eyewitness accounts have confirmed that there was no foul play,” Mangalore SP A Subramanyeshwar Rao said.

“The arrests are in connection with an offence that was peripheral to the accident. The NSG man who was in the company of a woman from another community in hotel was harassed by the youths. He showed his identity card and left the scene. He was run over while crossing a road after the incident,” he said.

IGP Gopal Hasur said that the police had initially suspected foul play in the case. “Things became clear after the examination of eyewitnesses including the NSG man’s friend and other witnesses who explained the sequence of events including the heckling prior to the accident,” the IGP said.

Mangalore has in recent times been witness to a severe polarisation of communities leading to virtually daily incidents of vigilantism from the Hindu and Muslim community against the intermingling of men and women from the communities.

Infamous for the January attack on women at a pub in Mangalore,the Sri Rama Sene,along with the Bajrang Dal,have been at the forefront of Hindu vigilantism in the region. Reactionary outfits like the Karnataka Forum for Dignity have emerged among the Muslim community to combat the Hindu right wing activism.