Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jun 16: A juvenile delinquent who reportedly robbed Tulasidas from Manjeshwar, working as signal technician for railways, under railway bridge No 2277 near Marnamikatta here was arrested by the railway police on Thursday June 15. In the said incident, which happened on May 13, Tulasidas was robbed of Rs 8,000 in cash which he had in his purse, and a mobile phone.

It now transpires that the 16-year-old minor in question happens to be a resident of Jeppu Mahakalipadpu. He was taken into custody from State Bank bus stand in the city. He happens to be a tenth standard student, and had failed in two subjects in the examination held this year. Tulasidas had called the railway police after identifying the person waiting for the bus at State Bank as the one who had robbed him on Thursday.

The police found that the accused had appeared for the supplementary examination held on Thursday and was waiting for the bus to go home. During the questioning, the boy agreed to his wrongdoing, but feigned ignorance about his accomplice. He said that he was distraught at his failure to clear SSLC examination on May 13 when he came into contact with another person who advised him to remain happy without worrying about anything. He said that at the behest of the other person, he got involved with the robbery, and that he has never come into contact with him again after he went away after the robbery.

As a complaint was also filed about the robbery at Pandeshwar police station here, the minor was handed over to that station. He is to be presented at the juvenile justice court.

Tulasidas, it is said, was checking voltage at bridge No 2277 near Marnamikatte on the evening of May 13 when two youngsters came near him in the guise of speaking to him. When Tulasidas was busy tightening nuts and bolts, one of the boys suddenly held a knife to his neck while the other placed another knife at his abdomen. Both the accused snatched away a purse in the possession of Tulasidas and a mobile phone which he had taken out to contact others. Franklin Monteiro, president of Rashtriyavadi Christara Vedike, had later reimbursed the amount to Tulasidas out of humanitarian consideration, after coming to know that the money robbed from him was meant to buy a hearing aid for his mother.