Mangaluru: A day after members of Ulaibettu Nagarika Samithi trained guns on Mangaluru Rural Station police alleging that they had arrested a wrong person in connection with the 2014 Ulaibettu clash, five local residents, who were reportedly assaulted by men from another community in the clash, said that they were shocked with the Samithi’s defense to save the ‘culprit’.
It may be recalled that a few men namely Mohammad Ameer, Shareef, Iqbal, Abdullah and Siddique claiming to be members of Ulaibettu Nagarika Samiti, had yesterday said in a press meet that the police had arrested a wrong person as the arrested shared the same name as of the real culprit.
Narrating the 2014 incident on Friday December 11, Sowmya, a lady who was allegedly physically harassed by a person named Aboobacker Siddique, said that she and her family members were on their way to attend a mehndi function in an auto-rickshaw. Near Ulaibettu junction, they happened to see a mob holding lethal weapons. The mob then beat up Sowmya’s family and tried to sexually assault her. Sowmya said that she had clearly seen Aboobacker in the act and that police had arrested the right person.
After the police arrested accused Aboobacker on Monday December 6, 2015, Sowmya had identified him as the culprit.
Gangadhar and Manoj Kumar, who were also in the auto-rickshaw on the fateful day said that they fought for lives as Aboobacker and others were running around with swords and the Nagarika Samithi’s claim was false. In addition, they said that they were living in Ulaibettu for several years, but never heard of a nagarika Samithi in Ulaibettu. They also expressed disappointment over Mangaluru South MLA Moideen Bava alleging that he supported Aboobacker.
