Members of transgender community arrested for assaulting social worker

As many as six members of the transgender community who attempted to disrupt social worker Asif Apathbhandava’s indefinite protest demanding shifting of toll plaza near NITK were arrested by police on Wednesday.

“Surathkal police, based on the complaint from Asif, registered a case under sections 143, 147, 504, 506, 294, 149 (for breaching peace, intimidation and rioting). The transgenders, Vasavi Gowda (32), Lipika (19), Hima (24), Adya (22), Maya (28) and Maithri (28), were arrested and produced before the court,” Mangaluru Commissioner of Police N Shashikumar told reporters in commissioner’s hall.

Asif in his complaint to the police informed that on the ninth day of the indefinite agitation against the illegal toll plaza in NITK, members from the transgender community had visited the site of protest around 12.30 am.

Police protection sought

“The members staged an obscene dance, flashed their private parts and issued death threats to me,” Asif said and demanded police protection as his life and the lives of his supporters were in danger.

The commissioner said Asif was staging the protest against the toll plaza without obtaining any prior permission.

“Following the attack in the wee hours on Wednesday, there is widespread fear in the area. Thus, I have issued instructions to Surathkal police to take action in order to prevent any further law and order problems,” he said.

Meanwhile, the video clippings of transgenders doing obscene dance have gone viral on social media.

Asif, in protest against the attack by transgenders, staged another novel protest by placing as many as eight huge laterite bricks on his palms and body.

Earlier in the day, Asif had assisted Mulki police by fishing out the body of a 32-year-old engineer, Suchendra Kumar, in Nandini river, near Pavanje.

Suchendra Kumar, working in Shivamogga, had come to his wife’s house in Chelaru, on the city’s outskirts. He had left the house in the morning had ended his life by suicide by jumping from Pavanje bridge.