Karkala: Villagers Denounce Lawyers for Perverted Demeanours
Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Karkala (SP)
Karkala, Aug 12: A group of young advocates who had visited Sirimane Falls on a leisure trip on Sunday August 10, had later filed a complaint, alleging that the policemen belonging to the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) had misbehaved with them. However, the villagers from Kigga and Sindodi villages located near the spot where the incident occurred have a different story to relate. "We would have been forced to take law into our hands and teach the young lawyers a lesson if the ANF personnel had not intervened. We had complained to the ANF about the behaviour of the visiting lawyers," they said.
The team of lawyers had apologized to the ANF team while going back from the spot. However, by 7.30 pm that day they made a call to the operator of a coin box here, using abusive languages and passing derogatory remarks about the residents of Sirimane and Sindodi villages. This has incensed the local people. They called a press conference on Monday August 11, to denounce the lawyers for their undeserving behaviour.
Sirimane Falls care-taker Subrahmanya described the happenings to explain why the local people objected to the acrimonious behaviour of this particular group comprising of 13 lawyers, while about 21,000 people who visit the falls annually had gone back without any problem. The group members were clad only in their inner wears, came to the falls drunk and continued to consume alcohol, seemed to be not in their senses, had lost balance and frequently fallen on the rocks and ground, resulting in minor injuries. "If we had clicked their photographs, we would have been able to show the height of vulgarity the lawyers had reached," he explained.
He invited the press persons to see for themselves the way the irrigation pipe of his house was damaged by the said group. Another villager K M Singh said that the young girls of the village go to the forest to collect greens and fodder for cattle. The falls is located on this route. Don't the inebriated lawyers have the minimum decency and dress sense in front of others, he questioned. "If they had crossed their limits further, we would not have allowed them to go back," he fumed.
Venkatesh, who brought his autorickshaw to the village, was requested to carry the off-balance lawyers in his vehicle from Sirimane to Sindodi. Venkatesh said, he refused, seeing the condition in which the visitors were.
As the group was misbehaving, we had requested the policemen to advise them properly. As a few gentlemen from among the group apologized and requested us not to give vent to our anger, we let them go scot-free without lodging any formal complaint. The lawyers, instead of filing a complaint with the Sringeri police for the alleged police misbehaviour, have done so after reaching Udupi, taking undue advantage of our accommodating nature. We do not want visitors who come drunk, misbehave and disrupt peace," the villagers said.
Handigadde Nagaraj, Maghebail Ramakrishna Rao and others were present at the conference. The villagers said that they feel secure in the presence of the ANF police and that the lawyers were fully responsible for whatever happened during their visit here.
In the meantime, Sringeri Bar Association, through its president Suresh, has condemned the alleged attack of ANF on lawyers and demanded for legal steps against the ANF.
ANF SP Ramadas Gowda and DySP Harishchandra said that the members of the force had behaved justifiably with the group of lawyers. Speaking to newsmen at Sindodi, Gowda said that he has full knowledge of what happened and that the ANF team questions all strangers who visit the area. There is no question of taking steps against the personnel who are not wrong, he reiterated.
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