‘Arrest the Accused and NOT a Innocent Driver’- Urge VHP in Attempt to Molest Incident
Mangaluru: Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Hotel Woodlands-Mangaluru, Bhaskar Dharmasthala- Vice President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) -Puttur Zone said, ” The Dharmasthala Police are playing games and delaying the arrest of the accused in the 31 January 2018 incident, where the accused was attempting to molest a young school girl. On Jan 31, when VIII Sashikala (name changed) from Kalmanja Village in Belthangady taluk was returning home from school, a person by the name of Rijesh tried to molest this girl. But the accused has not been arrested even after a week”
“Rijesh had hired an auto-rickshaw driven by Raj, and when he noticed the girl walking alone, he alighted from the auto and tried to molest the girl. He attempted to pull the girl into the auto, but she managed to escape from there and informed her parents. The parents immediately rushed to Dharmasthala police station, but were made to wait for nearly two hours. It is learnt that the police at this station, where majority of them who belong to Christian community are backing the accused, Rijesh who hails from a Christian community. The police are deliberately delaying in arresting Rijesh” added Bhaskar.
He further said, ” Due to the pressure put by the public that the auto-driver was involved in the incident, the police had forcibly arrested the driver Raj. But the real culprit is roaming free on streets, and the police are not arresting him in spite of our requests. It looks like the police are supporting the accused instead of arresting him, thereby giving justice to the victim. Even though the FIR has been filed, but no arrest has been made. VHP and Bajrang Dal of Puttur Zone demand that the accused Rijesh be arrested soon, if not we will launch an indefinite protest until we get justice in this case.”
The parents of the girl were among few other members of VHP who were present at the press meet.