Newskarnataka – Udupi
Udupi: The members of the Udupi District Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Association staged a protest in front of SP Office against police harassment on jewellery workers and demanded justice to Chetan Acharya from Bantakallu here on Tuesday April 22.
Addressing the protesters, Balakrishna Acharya, President of the association, said that most of the time thieves sell the stolen jewellery to goldsmiths. Usually, when goldsmiths realize it is a stolen item, they return it to the police.
But many times, when thieves are caught, they mislead the police on the quantity of gold sold to the jewellers. The officers then harass the goldsmiths during their recovery operations, he pointed out.
Referring to the Chetan Acharya case, he said the Kaup police had recently harassed him demanding more gold from him than that was sold to him by thieves. After a baseless case was registered against him, Acharya had gone into hiding, he added.
The association demanded the police drop the case against Acharya, failing which, a State-wide agitation would be launched.
Meanwhile, Santosh Kumar, Additional Superintendent of Police has asked Chethan Acharya to appear at the police station and that he would be freed if found innocent.
The police would look into the complaints of the association, he further said.
