Mangaluru, May 16: Three police constables in Mangaluru have finally been suspended over alleged assault on a Bengaluru-based engineer, who had chased a molester and helped the police to arrest him earlier this month.
The action was taken against them after an internal police probe confirmed that they had assaulted 25-year-old Harshil Shetty at the Mangaluru North Police and delayed in registering complaint of molestation against a youth who had tried to outrage the modesty of Harshil’s female friend.
The development comes two weeks after Harshil held a press meets in the city and narrated the incident. Harshil had come down to Mangaluru for the weekend. He and his friends, after dining at a bar on Balmatta Road on May 2, were walking out when a man suddenly brushed past and molested one of the girls, a KMC student. Her screams alerted the group, who saw the youth running into the night.
Harshil and his friends gave chase as he ran into a fast food joint near St Aloysius Degree College, and confronted him as he was changing his shirt, probably to mask his identity.
They demanded that the molester identified as Sanjay Das, 22 come out of the restaurant. Instead, the owner came out and defended his employee. "In spite of my efforts to convince the owner of his behaviour, he flatly refused to cooperate and defended Das, saying he was present in the restaurant when the incident took place. I swore to get the molester arrested,'' Harshil said.
The altercation brought police constables to the scene, who Harshil said, supported the restaurant owner. "My attempts to convince the cops failed. They flatly refused to arrest Sanjay and advised me to let go. When I implored he be arrested, one constable started hitting me. I tried defending myself, they misunderstood it as aggression. He continued hitting me and in the next five minutes, a PCR arrived and I was dragged to the station."
His parents Prakash and Hira Shetty, aunt Vindhya Ballal and uncle Chittaranjan Bhandary claimed Harshil was beaten inside the van and later at the station. Harshil, showing bruises all over his body, said the ill-treatment continued even after his friends arrived. The food court owner was also present at the station. Harshil was taken for a medical check-up, which he claimed was an eyewash.
Police later relented and questioned the owner, after the woman reached the station. When Harshil's friend identified Sanjay as the molester, cops arrested him but with a rider: if they had identified the wrong person, they (Harshil's friends) would be arrested as well.
Though Harshil was let off early Sunday morning, he had to appear at the station where he was charged with assaulting police and imprisoned for a day. He was out on bail the next day.
In a complaint to the police commissioner, Harshil questioned: "If this is the attitude of Mangalore police, in future no one will ever attempt to help their friends. Instead of encouraging me, they punished me. I'm in a state of confusion. should I fight for justice or be a silent spectator to crime?''
Also Read: Techie who chased a molester subjected to brutality by police
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