Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Jan 1: In an incident which occurred late night on Tuesday December  30, a group of youths on a tour allegedly picked up a quarrel with employees of a petrol bunk at Sastaan in the taluk, after which angry locals damaged the bus in which the youth were travelling.

Two employees of the bunk, identified as Santosh and Prashant, who were injured in the incident, were hospitalized.

A bus, carrying pilgrims from Kulshekar, Mangaluru with about 32 passengers bound for Old Goa for the Exposition of Relics of St Francis Xavier, arrived at the said petrol bunk at 8 pm on Tuesday. A couple of passengers then sought permission to use the toilet facility. A bunk employee named Santosh permitted the persons, thinking that a couple of people may use the toilet. However, several persons suddenly rushed to use the toilet, upon which Santosh asked them to use the facility one by one.

Angered by this advice, bus passengers identified as Dilshan, Silvester Lobo, Melwin, Snehal, Sunil D'Souza, Ashwin D'Souza, and some women raised a ruckus and allegedly beat up the bunk employees. When Prashant intervened to pacify them, he was brutally assaulted and his clothes were torn. They also allegdly threatened him to torch the petrol bunk. When some local youth, who were observing the unreasonable behaviour of the youth tried to strike a truce, they too were roughed up and threatened.

After this information spread fast, hundreds of locals rushed to the spot, surrounded the bus, and took the travellers to task. When people saw that a woman from the bus was recording the proceedings in her cell phone, some locals threw mud into the bus, in addition to throwing stones and shattering the window glasses. Kota station house officer, K R Nayak, rushed to the spot with other police personnel, shifted the bus to the police station, and succeeded in quelling the disturbance. Brahmavar station house officer, Gireesh, and police circle inspector, Arun B Nayak, resorted to light lathi charge to disperse the crowd.

Six persons who were identified as among those who beat up the petrol bunk employees, were taken to Kota police station and interrogated. When one of them claimed himself to be an employee of police department, police circle inspector, Arun B Nayak, took him to task and got details of the incident from him. As a matter of precaution to maintain law and order, commandos of rapid action force of Udupi were summoned to the spot. A case has been registered in Kota police station.