Lawyer advises woman against smoking, gets thrashed

A 40-year-old advocate was beaten up at a pub when he ventured to teach a young woman 'good behaviour' and stop her from smoking.

Following the incident on Wednesday evening at the Chin Lung Resto Bar and Restaurant on Residency Road, the man and the woman filed complaints against each other, presenting an entirely different version of what actually happened.

The 26-year-old IT employee went to the bar with two female and a male friend and was smoking after having a couple of beers. She then noticed a man at an adjacent table staring at her. When she told her friends about the man, they asked her to ignore him.

But after paying his bills, the advocate — whom the police identified as Shashidhar G — sidled up to her table with the advice that she should not smoke or drink out of control. The enraged woman asked him to mind his business and leave her alone.

Shashidhar then uttered some expletives against her, prompting the livid woman to shove and slap him. The bar bearers, coming to the woman's rescue, pushed Shashidhar out of the pub. He called up the police and complained, saying he was manhandled by three women and the bar staff.

"The smoke had a strange smell, something like contraband (drugs)," Shashidhar told DH. "I observed the girl, who looked like she was my daughter's age. I didn't want to tell her anything, but when I paid my bills and walked out, I couldn't resist. I told her not to tread the wrong path."

The woman shoved, slapped and used filthy language, the advocate added. "Later, the bar staff came to her support, beat me up and pushed me out of the pub," Shashidhar said.

The woman, for her part, gave a different account. "He came to my table and said I was like his daughter. But he tried touching me inappropriately. I shoved and slapped him. He shouted expletives and pushed the chairs. He threatened to hit me with the helmet when the bar staff hauled him away," she said.

The Cubbon Park police arrived at the pub and herded the women and Shashidhar to the station. By then, Shashidhar had called his lawyer friends, who gathered at the police station and threatened the women in front of the police. Renuka, a woman sub-inspector, came to the rescue of the women and took down their complaint.

The police took complaints from both the parties and filed FIRs. They booked the man for outraging the modesty of a woman, and the woman for assault. They took the woman and Shashidhar for medical examination and released them on station bail.