Karnataka - Mysore

Dasara tourists beaten up at Srirangapatna

Safrunnisa

MYSORE: While millions witnessed the world famous Jamboo Savari on Thursday, a group of tourists from Tirupur of Tamil Nadu could not make it because of an untoward incident they faced in Srirangapatna. The 17-member family, which left Tirupur to witness Dasara, are now recuperating in a lodge in Mysore.

The vehicle they were travelling in was waylaid in broad daylight by a group of hooligans in Ganjam of Srirangapatna last Sunday, and they were mercilessly beaten up before they were relieved of their belongings. While four of them were treated as out patients, one among them, who suffered a serious head injury, is being treated in K.R. Hospital.

Attempts by the traumatised family to register a complaint with the Srirangapatna police allegedly failed and police officials relented only after the interference of senior officials of the Police Department.

According to family member Ashrafulla (50), the family reached Srirangapatna on October 5. While they were passing a desolate spot near Ganjam, two people who followed them on a motorbike stopped their vehicle and took up a quarrel with the driver. They dragged the driver from his seat and started beating him up. “Soon 35 to 40 people assembled there. They started attacking us. When my sister came to my rescue, she was dragged by her hair by one of the attackers and they hit her with a club. Another person hit my pregnant sister in her stomach,” he said.

Finally Ashrafulla managed to bundle his family back into the vehicle and asked the driver to start the vehicle. Ashrafulla alleged that when they went to register a complaint at the Srirangapatna police outpost, there was no one there. When they took the injured to the town police station, the official on duty behaved irresponsibly. However, a sympathetic junior officer accompanied them to the spot where the incident happened and brought in three persons who had witnessed the incident. However on the intervention of the local authorities, higher police officers swung into action and registered a complaint and assured the family that action would be initiated.

When contacted, the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ashok, clarified that there was no truth in their allegations, as the police had registered their complaint immediately. A minor altercation between the driver of the vehicle and bike riders led to the untoward incident. Attempts were being made to arrest the culprits. Superintendent of Police, Mandya, Manish Kaspekar, also visited the spot and met the family, he added.

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