Congress corporator 'assaults' man for talking to woman outside his house

The Congress corporator from HBR Layout, P Anand, has been booked for assaulting a man who was talking to a female friend outside his (politician’s) house on Wednesday night.

It was around 11 am when the corporator, said to be drunk, stepped out of his house on seeing the couple busy talking to each other. He clicked their pictures on his phone. He then confronted the man, Giri Keshav, 25, and demanded to know what they were doing there.

Keshav asked him to mind his own business. Anand got angry and slapped Keshav. He was joined by some of his associates. But before things could go out of hand, passersby called the police who arrived at the spot and took both Anand and Keshav to the Banaswadi police station.

Anand told the police he had asked the couple to leave the place for “their own safety” in the wake of a girl’s molestation in neighbouring Kammanahalli. But Keshav, he claimed, tried to attack him, after which he acted in “self-defence”. Anand also claimed he had only photographed the registration number of Keshav’s motorcycle.

Keshav told the police he came to drop off his friend at her house which is close to where the corporator lives. He parked the bike near Anand’s house and was talking to his friend when the corporator intruded, a senior police officer said.

Keshav said Anand assaulted him when he saw him clicking their pictures and questioned him. Keshav said the corporator’s associates beat him so badly he bled from the nose and mouth. Worse, police didn’t let him go to hospital for treatment. They relented only when his family arrived. He also accused the police of “favouring” the corporator and not listening to his side of the story.

The officer said they were looking into both sides of the story and whether Anand was drunk when he assaulted Keshav. For now, Anand and his associates have been booked.