Mangalore, July 29: The media, which played a crucial role in showing the brutality of the self-proclaimed custodians of Hindu culture in the city on Saturday to the entire nation, is now also facing allegations of continuing the trend of 'unethical journalism'.
A group of around 50 miscreants, claimed to be the activists of Hindu Jagarana Vedike on Saturday at around 7: 30pm stormed into private home-state at Padil, here, and thrashed men and women who were having a weekend party.
The whole episode was not only a reminiscent of a similar attack by Sri Rama Sene activists on a Mangalore pub on January 24, 2009, but also was a grim reminder of a Guwahati molestation of a young girl, who was beaten and stripped in full public view even as the reporter of a local channel filmed the incident instead of saving the girl.
The incident has raised question on the role of the channel crew which filmed the assault. TV channels were tipped off prior to the Saturday's attack. Crew of different TV channels were in place well before the members of the outfit launched their unprovoked attack.
Residents in the vicinity of the homestay, who were not aware of the attack, came to know of the incidents only when they watched the horrifying footage on TV.
The channel crew did not hesitate to film the episode while the mob was assaulting the young boys and girls. The video showed the men barging into the rooms of the resort, pushing around and slapping the women, molesting them and touching their private parts. One of the attackers grabbed a girl from behind, fondling her and forcibly lifting her face for the benefit of TV cameras. They also stripped the boys. All along, the TV crew kept filming, instead of trying to rescue the students.
The City Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh also has expressed shock over the unethical attitude of the media persons. “Television channels that were with the attackers should have prevented the incident”, he said warning that police would issue notice to the channels for the attitude of their crew.
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The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
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