Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Feb 26: Melville Pinto (61), who owns a publication, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment and fine of Rs 3,000 by the first additional chief judicial magistrate’s (CJM) court here on Friday February 24. In case of failure to pay fine, he will have to undergo three months of additional jail term.

Reportedly, there were several complaints from people harassed by his blackmailing tactics against Pinto. One of them, Dr Balakrishna, an Ayurvedia physician, had filed a complaint against Pinto, alleging that the accused followed him in a car on November 15, 1999, when he was moving in a motor bike, stopping him near Marnamikatte here, and assaulting him with the help of four others who were in Pinto’s car, and posing life threat to Balakrishna. It is said that the assault related to a dispute over a land in Shaktinagar here.

Dr Balakrishna had filed a complaint about the incident in Pandeshwar police station. The policemen, after investigation, had filed charge sheet in the court, charging Pinto of offences under sections 341, 325 and 506 of Indian Penal Code. Judge of the CJM Court, Basavaraj, who heard the case, held Pinto guilty of the intercepting the motor bike, assaulting Dr Balakrishna, and posing death threat to the petitioner, and awarded jail sentence and fine as above.

In the case, senior assistant public prosecutor, Ajit Kumar D Hamigi, had appeared in the case on behalf of the prosecution.