BELAGAVI: In an incident of moral policing in Belagavi, a group of miscreants allegedly assaulted a boy and his cousin sister, who were sitting on a bench on the Fort Lake premises on Saturday. The police have arrested nine people in this connection. A search is on for the other accused.
The injured victims have been identified as Sachin Lamani, a resident of Goundwad village, and Muskan from BK Kangrali village in Belagavi taluk. The arrested have been identified as Mohammed Hussain Noor Ahmed Inamadar, 22, and Saif Ali Naseem Ali Mullani Ismail Magadum, 27, of Ramanagar, Atif Amhed Abdul Majeed Shaikh, 22, of Shivaji Nagar, Mohammed Aman Gulamhussain Chabuksawar of Azad Nagar, Umar Sadiq Badiger, 19, and Azan Abiden Kalkundri, 19, of Veerbhadranagar, Rihan Mohammad Gous Rotiwale, 19, of Camp, and two minor boys.
The accused dragged the victims to an abandoned shed on the Fort Lake premises and locked them there.
They later assaulted them for almost three hours. According to sources, the mothers of the victims are sisters. The father of the girl was a Muslim and died 11 years ago.
Moral policing: Victims locked up in shed
The victims had gone to Belagavi to file an online application for benefits under the Yuva Nidhi scheme at a cyber centre. When the computer operator told them that there was a server problem and it would take some time to restart, they went to the Fort Lake premises.
Seeing them sitting together, the accused sought to know why Muskan was sitting with the boy from another community. When the victims said that they are cousins, the accused did not listen and dragged them to the shed nearby.
Despite the victims’ pleas to let them go, the accused assaulted them with rods and sticks. The boy managed to make a phone call to his parents. His parents rushed to the Fort Lake premises immediately along with some relatives.
Hearing their screams for help, the boy’s parents and relatives rushed to the shed and rescued them. The victims were taken to BIMS for treatment. DCP (Law and Order) Rohan Jagadish said the police have taken this case seriously. Already nine people have been arrested and efforts are on to nab the other accused.