Two booked for moral policing, abusing, and threatening two minors

Mangaluru: Mangaluru South Police have booked two persons on charges of alleged moral policing, threatening, and assaulting of a 14-year-old boy who was speaking to his school mate while sitting near the railway track close to Grama Sangha in Babugudde, Mangaluru.

The accused have been identified as Steven Monteiro and his son Avil.

Commissioner of Police Sudheer Kumar Reddy CH said that based on the complaint, a case has been registered against the suspects and both are at the police station. Though the incident occurred on February 23, the parent of the minor boy approached the police on the evening of February 25, following which an FIR was registered under Sections 126(2), 115(2), 352, and 351(1), 79 of the BNS, along with Sections 3(1)(r) (s) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

In his complaint, Janardhan, father of the 14-year-old boy, stated that he belongs to the Scheduled Caste (Bakuda community). On February 23 at around 4 pm, his son was sitting near the railway track with his friend and the two were talking. At the time, Steven Monteiro and his son Avil arrived holding a mobile phone and began recording a video of the minors.

The duo allegedly approached the minors, abused them, and claimed they would upload the video on Facebook. On hearing this, the minor girl left the place. When the boy attempted to leave the spot, Avil stopped him, took him from the railway track to the adjacent road, and demanded the address of the girl’s house. He allegedly abused the boy using filthy language and later, both the accused, as per the complaint, assaulted him with their hands.

The boy was also publicly threatened and abused in reference to his caste by Steven Monteiro, according to the complaint.

The complainant said he became aware of the incident after a video of it started circulating on social media.