Homestay attack victims yet to get over the shock

Mangalore, July 30: Partying in the open was out of the question with moral goons prowling around. Now, partying within the confines of one's house, too, is under threat. "The minute I came home, my mother told me not to attend such parties in future and I promised her I won't,'' said a sobbing Rekha (name changed). "Even I don't think my friends will attend parties, other than the ones called at somebody's home," said the engineering student.

Vijay Kumar, 23, event organizer and DJ,who is still shaken by the events says:"We will think twice while holding parties here. We will not stop partying, but it definitely will not be in the city." Gurudath Kamath, an MBA, who is into event management, says: "They robbed us of our chains, wallets and beat us on assumption." Interestingly, it was Kumar's birthday party. It started at 2.30pm and was almost ending."We were preparing to leave when these goons entered and beat us black and blue,'' said Vijay,who is still sporting a black eye. "All of us had informed our parents about the party. In fact, some had their parents drop them off at the venue,'' he said.

"At 6pm we decided to leave. We were keeping our bags outside when I saw a crowd gathering. When they entered, I ran outside and jumped the compound. But the goons followed and dragged me by my hair all the way to the resort,'' sobs Lavanya. "I was lucky. I was put in a room and they locked it. I was out only when police came. They pulled Vijay's shirt and pushed him on the bed along with the other girls to make it appear like something was going on,'' said Rekha. For Vijay, it is his second brush with the goons. They had gatecrashed and stopped a party when he had organized a gig last year in a hotel near Yekkur.

One of the girls was a police official's daughter. "We will testify against these goons.We want them punished," said Vijay. But the girls said: "We have had enough to last us a lifetime.We don't want anything more to do with this case."