Agencies
BANGALORE, OCTOBER 27
Days after the Manipuri student Michael Haokip was assaulted for not knowing Kannada, another couple from Nagaland was assaulted on the outskirts of the city by four men who called them “foreigners” and “NRI”.
The victims, who requested the media for anonymity, have said in their complaint to the police that the man was punched and the woman slapped by them.
Although the attack happened on Saturday, the issue came to light on Monday after the arrest of the four men. They have been identified as Rathan, Mahesh, Harish and Ananth. Mahesh, Harish and Ananth are software engineers and Rathan owns a gym.
Getting these men booked, however, was hardly an easy task for the couple. They were turned back from two police stations they visited by policemen who refused to register a complaint.
They finally approached the nodal police officer appointed to address grievances of people from the northeast states living in Karnataka. The FIR was registered only on Sunday afternoon, more than 24 hours after the incident.
Narrating the horror, the man from Nagaland told reporters that he had gone for a drive with his wife and their friend to a picturesque part of the city when their car had a flat tyre.
As they tried to repair the car, they were approached by four men who came in a SUV.
The victims claimed that the men called them NRIs and foreigners and demanded to know what they were doing at such a lonely spot. Soon, they started pushing the man around and when the woman intervened, she too was slapped.
“They kept repeating that we should leave India,” said the man, who is a software engineer and has lived in the city for 13 years.
Although home minister KJ George avoided the media, sources in his office said that an enquiry will be conducted to ascertain why the police delayed the FIR.
