Mangalore, Oct 29: After a long gap of five-and-a-half years, the Judical Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Court has begun the hearing in the infamous pub attack case where a group of Hindutva vigilantes barged into a pub and lynched young girls and other revelers in broad daylight in January 2009.
One of the accused named in the case, advocate Dinakar Shetty had filed an appeal in the high court five years ago to remove his name from the chargesheet as he was not a part of the group which had attacked young boys and girls in the pub attack case.
Following this, the state high court had instructed the lower court five years ago to stay the hearing of the case, and not to conduct the trial of Dinakar Shetty, who had been mentioned as the 29th accused in the case.
Now, following the approval of the high court, the lower court will look into the case to determine whether or not Dinakar Shetty was involved in the assault on revelers on the fateful day.
Another accused in the case Puneeth Kottary is now one of the chief spokesperson of Bajrang Dal. Yet another accused Prasad Attavar, who was the joint convenor of Sri Rama Sene, exited the organisation and began one of his own named Rama Sene'. Dinakar Shetty is also no longer associated with Hindu Yuva Sene. Only Pramod Muthalik remains a part of the organisation responsible for the attack.
Out of the 30 accused in the name, 17 have already received summons for the court hearing. All of the 17 were present in the court on Tuesday.
Of the 30 accused, 28 arrested were released after receiving bail from judicial custody. The 29th and 30th accused had secured anticipatory bail from the court.
Prior to the Lok Sabha elections in the case, founder of Sri Rama Sene Pramod Muthalik was inducted in the state unit of BJP before being removed from the party. Similarly, Dinakar Shetty had joined the Congress bandwagon in front of AICC member Oscar Fernandes before he was excused by the party members.
Following the attack that took place in Amnesia pub in the heart of Mangalore city, the place shut down and did not re-open. After a period of three years, another pub took over the place and opened in the same spot.
To this date, none of the girls who were assaulted and lynched have come forward to lodge a written complaint against the mob or the assaulters.
The National Commission for Women had then constituted a three-member team to investigate the attack on women in the pub. However, the report prepared by them, which put the blame on the girls, was rejected by the Centre. A few weeks later, the chairperson of the commission Nirmala Venkatesh was inducted into the BJP.
Comments
Add new comment