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

Kundapur, Jul 31: A complaint has been filed in the police station here relating to four unidentified young men, who followed girl students in a deserted road, sexually harassed them, and passed lewd remarks.

The incident occurred on Thursday July 30 evening on Doopadakatte Halnadu road, when three girl students of a college were walking through the pathway leading to their houses after alighting from a bus. These four youth, who came in two motor bikes, not only sexually harassed these girls, but also used obscene words besides posing threats to them against snubbing them.

Three girl students of the government junior college in the town had alighted from a bus at Doopadakatte near Kandlur on Thursday evening. When they were walking together towards their houses, four youngsters in two bikes closely followed them. They did acts like slowly brushing their bodies against the girls from behind, blocking their movement by stopping motor bikes across their path, stopping the girls and forcing them to indulge in conversation etc for about one and half km. After one of the girls warned them of hitting them with her sandal, the youth toned down their harassment. However, after the girl took a deviation towards her home, they started to harass the other two girls, and questioned them about the girl who threatened them. However, as the girls were nearing their home by then, the bike-borne youngsters went away, it is said.

The girls explained what had happened once they reached their homes. After complaint was filed in the station, police sub-inspector, Nassir Hussain, visited homes of the girl students, collected details about appearance and physical features of the men. He also collected registration numbers of the motor bikes which the four raided.

There have been complaints of several gangs of youth indulging in harassment of girls and women in three roads in this region including the one which leads to Lord Ganapathi temple. Since the last two months, these gangs have become active, creating an atmosphere of fear for the carefree movement of ladies. Dinesh Achar, convener of Bajrang Dal, complained that young men roaming around even during the day have been harassing girls in the area, who feel insecure because of this menace.

Gram panchayat vice president, Santosh Kumar, warned that a suitable resolution will be passed at the panchayat meeting, and on behalf of the panchayat, a complaint would be filed with the police seeking suitable action against the culprits. He said that if such instances recur, strong forms of agitation would be undertaken by villagers.