Cops see Left link to bus attack

We are treating them as miscreants. Our investigations show they have no known link to the Sri Rama Sene or any organised Hindu group. Yes,some of them have been members of the Leftist trade unions, said a senior Mangalore police officer.

There is too much politicking over the incident. These are rowdy elements,there is no doubt about it. But if we start looking at affiliations then everyone will be connected to some political group or the other. We want the incident to die out, said another police officer in charge of Mangalore.

Manjeshwar MLA C H Kunhambu8217;s daughter Shruti,18,who studies at a Mangalore college,and friend Shabeeb were pulled out of a bus and intimidated by a group of eight to 10 unidentified ruffians on Friday. Both were released subsequently. Five persons have been arrested,including four employees of the private bus in which the girl and boy were travelling from Kasargod in Kerala to neighbouring Mangalore in Karnataka. However,unlike the past instances of moral policing in Mangalore,no right-wing Hindu outfit has claimed responsibility for the latest incident.

Playing down the episode,BJPs Karnataka Home Minister V S Acharya had on Saturday said the girls parents should be glad that she came back home safe. Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa,however,promised stern action against the accused.

Kunhambu has accused the BJP Government in Karnataka of shielding the real attackers. The police in Karnataka are saying all kinds of things. They have not found the people at the house where my daughter was taken to. No one from that locality has been questioned. They have not found the owners of the vehicles that were used to take the boy and girl. There is no investigation of a case where people have taken law into their own hands and they are telling stories, he said.

Shruti,the MLAs daughter,said she had implored in vain the bus conductor and others to help her. The attackers took her and Shabeeb by an autorickshaw to a house,with the other men following on motorcycles. There was a woman present at the house. She asked me if I was a Hindu,and when I said yes,she asked me not to talk to Muslims. They claimed they would not allow it, Shruti said. They let me go when the woman asked them to. While leaving,she saw that Shabeeb was being beaten up. She was dropped off by the autorickshaw near the spot where she was taken away from,and Shabeeb was released around an hour and a half later,she added.