State Women’s Commission Chairperson C Manjula has squarely blamed the police for the July 28 attack on ‘Morning Mist’ homestay at Padil near Mangalore.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, she said that after meeting the female victims, their parents and officials, she had come to the conclusion that the police could have prevented the attack if they had kept a tab on unauthorised homestays and ‘moral police.’
Quoting the female victims, Manjula said that the female victims had come straight from college in uniforms to the homestay to take part in the birthday party, but were not aware that the homestay was the venue for the party hosted by Gurudatt Kamath and Vijaykumar.
“They also said that they changed their dress (uniform to party dress) in the homestay, brought for them by the birthday girl studying in an engineering college,” Manjula said all the female victims were friends during pre-university days were innocents.
However, Manjula said that the antecedents of Vijaykumar and Gurudatt were suspicious.
“One of the person’s (she named the person in the press conference) mother was booked for women trafficking in 2009. But the case was closed due to lack of evidence,” she said, and added that the police need to probe the antecedents of the organisers.
Stating that she would recommend to the Home Minister to order a probe on recurrence of such attacks by moral police, Manjula said of late intolerance had been increasing in society. The chief of the women’s panel said she did not meet the boys as they were not assaulted. But when told that boys too were assaulted (as shown in TV footage), Manjula said she was in Mangalore to safeguard the interest of women.
When asked what action she would recommend against attackers, Manjula initially said that it was left to the police, but later added that she would recommend booking the attackers under the Goonda Act.
To another query, she said the police have filed FIR against 27 persons out of whom 15 have been arrested. By evening seven more were arrested.
Seven more arrested
The Central Crime Branch police have arrested seven more persons on Thursday, in connection with the attack on youth partying at a home stay in Mangalore on July 28.
With it, the number of people arrested in the case has gone up to 22 of the 27 names mentioned in the FIR filed by the city police.
The arrested are, Suresh Poojary, 24 from Veeranagara, Mithun, 21 from Maroli, Sampath, 23 from Gurupura-Kaikamba, Deepak, 24 from Maroli, Ramesh, 40, Nithin, 28 and Jagadish, 20 from Kannur, informed the police sources.
All the arrested are the residents of Mangalore taluk.