– Representational Image
Mangaluru: Close on the heels of a gang rape at Thota Bengre, police arrested seven persons, including three minors on Tuesday, November 27.
The arrested have been identified as Arun, Prajwal, Adithya and Riyaz, all residents of Thota Bengre. The remaining three are minors and the police department is now in a bid to collect their birth certificate to confirm their age. The victim woman has been sent for a medical examination.
It is said that all the arrested are addicted to ganja. The victim woman and her friend, who is from Bihar are employees in the same company which is located at Kalladka in Bantwal taluk. They had been to a secluded area in Thota Bengre beach on November 18, which helped the miscreants to easily target them. Usually, police deploy sufficient security personnel at all important beaches in the city. But, this horrifying incident has emphasised the need for deploying more security personnel in all tourist places, especially on beaches.
The incident of gang rape in a beach is a black dot to the beach city famed Mangaluru. The incident has made the public think twice before going to the beaches. It may be recalled that a few years ago some miscreants had manhandled the then deputy commissioner of the district and his wife when they had been to the Tannirbavi beach.
The accused were booked under IPC Section 376 (Punishment for gang rape), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace)and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation).
More security personnel will be deployed: Compol
Mangaluru Commissioner of Police T R Suresh told Newskarnataka that usually more security personnel are deployed at the beaches during the weekends. “However, after this incident, we are planning to put additional security personnel in all the beaches. As this rape happened in a secluded area of Thota Bengre Beach, we will concentrate on all secluded areas of the beachs in order to prevent such incidents in the future”, he said.
