Mangaluru man walks free from Oman jail, thanks Indian Social Forum

Bantwal, Feb 7: A 31-year-old man has been arrested on charge of sexual assault on a minor boy at Kanyana under the limits of Vittla police station in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada.

The police have identified accused as Suresh Prabhu, a resident of Kanyana village. He is said to be an activist of a saffron outfit.

The alleged sexual assault took place on February 1, when the victim, a schoolboy, was on his way home from the school. 

According to police, Prabhu called the boy saying he wanted to tell a secret. He then took him to the school toilet and sexually assaulted him there. 

After returning home, the boy narrated the incident to his mother, who approached the jurisdictional Vittla police station and lodged a complaint. 

After taking the minor boy’s statement, the police registered a case under section 341, 377, 506 IPC and POCSO Act against Prabhu. He was arrested on February 5.

A 7-year-old Dalit girl who had gone missing from outside her residence in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukkottai district on June 30 was found dead last evening. 

Police sources said that the body with severe injures was found in a forest area bordering her village. The young girl had been sexually assaulted before the murder, according to police.

Victim’s neighbour, Raja, 25, who belongs to the Pandaram caste, has been arrested in connection with the incident.

While they have included murder charges in the First Information Report (FIR) against him, they are awaiting the post-mortem report to add sections of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offence Act (POCSO act) in the FIR.

"The girl was playing outside her home at 4pm. Her parents then found her missing and her father filed a complaint at the station at around 7pm. Efforts were then underway to find the girl," said an investigating official.

They found the minor's body in the forest area near her village on the evening of July 1. Her clothes were in a state of disarray and her face was severely injured.

"She has been beaten with sticks on the face and injuries are clearly visible. The post-mortem will reveal the actual cause of death," says an official from the district.

Police sources further add that the neighbour had found the minor roaming around the area on Wednesday and allegedly took advantage of the fact that she was alone.

"During inquiry he admitted that he had sexually assaulted and murdered the girl," says a police official from the district. "Further investigation is underway and we will have more clarity once we get the post mortem report," he adds.

Bengaluru, Feb 10: Senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Sunday hit out at the BJP and RSS for taking out a route march in Ramanagara against the controversial Jesus Christ statue.

“Just because the BJP won 25 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress workers need not lose hope. If the Congress and JD(S) had worked out a better strategy, the BJP would not have won even 10 seats. We will correct our mistakes,” the former Congress minister said.

After the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has failed to do well in assembly polls and has been losing power in many states. People are hitting the streets protesting against its policies such as CAA and NRC, he said.

Accusing the BJP and RSS of not being able to digest Congress’ victory in the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said that the BJP is trying hard to make inroads into the constituency represented by his brother D K Suresh. “Let them take out route march, we don’t care,” he said.

“We all know what the BJP did during the Lok Sabha elections, and the media reported how much money they spent in the elections. What was the Election Commission doing? Was the Income Tax Department sitting with its eyes closed? Why did they conduct raids only in Hassan, Shivamogga and Mandya districts,” he asked.

He alleged that false cases were slapped when him and other leaders, including H D Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah, G Parameshwara and Dinesh Gundurao.