Dramatic twist in police station attack case; 10 policemen booked

Mangalore, December 21: In a dramatic twist in the case of attack of on Sullia police station, 10 police personnel have been booked on charges of 'atrocity' on accused.

The development comes after a delegation of BJP leaders met Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Pratap Reddy urging to take action against the police personnel, who allegedly beat the accused in the custody following the incident of December 14, when members of rightwing group had pelted stones at police station.

Sources said that a case has been registered by Sullia Circle Police Inspector Tharanath against Additional Superintendent of Police, Prabhakar, then-Sullia Sub-Inspector Ravikumar, who has been now transferred to Mangalore), Kadaba SI, Paulpriya Kumar, Puttur Rural SI Anand, Kadaba police constable Palanivelu, police jeep driver Kuriakose, Sullia constable Ramesh and three others. The FIR has been submitted to Sullia court.

The case was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by Sullia town BJP Shakti Kendra leader and Land Bank President PK Umesh. He was one of the main accused in the attack on police station.

Bowing to the pressure, Dakshina Kannada Superintended of Police Laburam on Tuesday paid a visit to the spot before a counter case was registered against police personnel.

It can be mentioned here that RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar on December 16 in a protest against alleged police atrocity in Sullia warned the police of dire consequence if 'they continued to harass Hindus'.

Back ground

On December 14, a group of people belonging to a rightwing group waylaid a car in which two men and two women were reportedly traveling to Madikeri.

Iqbal, Hameed from Uppala and Prabharani and Shobha from Jharkhand were traveling in the vehicle.

The car was stopped at Jalsoor Gate by the group of over 200 people led by Jalsoor GP member Sanath Adkar. After questioning the couples, the group handed them over to the police in the night.

The police retained men for interrogation and sent the women to remand home.

Later, altercation broke out between ZP Member Naveen Rai and the police as the cops questioned the public's right to stop a vehicle and question the individuals.

This led to BJP members shouting out slogans against the police in front of the Station. Stones were pelted at the station. Police had to wield lathi to get situation under control.

The very next day police had arrested 15 persons including P K Umesh, Dinesh Kumar, Guruprasad, Kiran Kumar and town panchayat vice president Prakash Hegde. They were later released on bail.

Police personnel, who got injured during attack on police station