Will Fight for Justice Till the End, say Boy Victims of Resort Attack
Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Mangalore, Aug 3: With each passing day last week’s brutal attack on the victims of Morning Mist home stay is given different twists and turns. Much to the bewilderment of the victims and the general public, Karnataka State Women’s Commission C Manjula who was on a fact finding mission to Mangalore, has tried to dodge the core of issue of the attack per se rather than coming to the succor of the victims. She is however, bent upon making wild allegations on the mother of one of the victims, which is nothing but a gambit to demoralize the victims and weaken their case.
Of the 13 victims who were partying at Morning Mist home stay last Saturday only Vijayakumar and Gurudutt Kamath have come forward to talk to the media and seek justice to themselves and their friends as they feel they have not done anything wrong and were unreasonably attacked. To their surprise they find that efforts are on through the State Women’s Commision Chairperson C Manjula to deflect the entire issue by attacking the parents of the victims so that they shut their mouths or give up their fight half way through. This attitude has added to the bagful of woes of the victims who are yet to come out of the trauma of the assault and the media blitzkrieg that followed the incident.
Unfazed by Personal Attacks
Both Gurudutt and Vijayakumar are unfazed by the efforts to evade the issue and want to fight till they get justice. When daijiworld met them to gauge their mood and get first hand information from them they said they will fight to get justice till the end. Though still dazed and traumatized they want to fight to “ensure that this does not happen to others like us who were just having fun and not doing anything wrong”, says Gurudutt Kamath. “I know now they are targeting my mother just to devide and demoralize us. But it is in no way connected with the present issue. I don’t have to give explanation to this personal attack but my mother was going to the spa for treatment which was raided by the police on some other pretext. Now these people are giving different connotations to that incident. What we seek is nothing but social justice on humanitarian grounds rather than mucking up personal issue”, Gurudutt explains. Luckily for Gurudutt and Vijay Kumar their parents have stood by them offering their full support and co-operation despite the efforts of some elements to malign them with personal attacks.
Both Vijay Kumar and Gurudutt are pained and dejected by the refusal of the girls to come forward to fight against those who attacked and molested them. “We also could have avoided the media glare by refusing to talk to anyone. But we did not do it because we wanted to show we did no wrong and were merely celebrating a birthday party. We wanted the attackers to be punished for their savagery actions. We can understand how difficult it is for girls to come forward and talk like we are doing. But the molesters should not go scot free because of this”, says Vijay Kumar. One of the girls Keerthana (name changed) who was celebrating her birthday, is bruised badly and is yet to come out of the shock says Vijay Kumar who tried to meet her in order to comfort her. The attackers had used a blade to inflict cuts on her face and one can only imagine the mental and physical ordeal she goes through.
"Many people ask us why we had to do a party in a home stay," says Gurudutt. “If we go to a hotel the party for 15 people could cost us anything up to Rs. 20,000/- and above. We are not so well off that we could spend so much money. We got the home stay for Rs. 5,000/- and my mother had prepared the food for the birthday party. So we wanted to have a small party within a budget of Rs 10,000/-,” Gurudutt asserted. Of course life is not easy for these youngsters as everywhere they are identified and Vijay Kumar even feels that he is being stalked, something which is quite unsettling for him.
The Story of the Red Jacket
Both Vijay and Gurudutt deny that they did not know all the five girls who attended the party. Vijay and Gurudutt knew Keerthana, the other birthday girl because of their job as event managers and she was an occasional hostess of a TV show. Keerthana had invited her friends who were known to both the boys and these girls had invited three of their common friends to the party. All these girls were classmates in PUC but were in touch with one another despite studying in different colleges.
The stolen red jacket, worn by accused Ganesh alias Munna
Apart from getting beaten black and blue the victims have lost three gold chains, two wallets and two mobiles to the attackers. Not satisfied with this, one of the attackers, the one with the chequered shirt who was slapping the girl, stole the red jacket belonging to the girl in pink dress who had worn it as an overcoat when she had come for the party. It was the same man (said to be Ganesh alias Munna) who could be seen standing 'innocently' by the side of the police in the same home stay wearing that same red jacket.
Recalling the incident Vijay says that he was in the toilet upstairs when he heard the commotion and came out running. The attackers caught him upstairs and beat him which the video has not recorded. “I was beaten severely upstairs by a gang to 6 to 8 people who then tore my shirt and brought me down and pushed me on the bed by the side of the girls and they shot the scene with an evil intention of depicting us in a wrong pose”, assets Vijay.
For Vijay Kumar it is a strange paradox of life because he has been a DJ for more than 15 parties and programmes organized by Bajrang Dal and BJP in Mangalore. Many a time the party organizers insisted that Vijay should be the DJ for their programmes. Now, all of a sudden he has become the bad boy!
A Few Questions to Karnataka State Women’s Commission Chairperson
It is unfortunate that zealous efforts are made to deflect the central issue of this incident by projecting the victims in bad light by the very people who should have given all help for the victims.
In trying to find fault with the victims and avoiding all questions pertaining to the attackers and the incident, Chairperson of Karnataka State Women’s Commission has shown that she is dumb and is just a stooge in the hands of the powers that be who want to evade the issue by trying to divert public attention.
She had alleged in the press conference that the mother of the victim was booked for immortal trafficking in 2009 and the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. Is she so dumb not to know that a person is just an accused until found guilty? If the court has dismissed her case for immoral trafficking as Manjula claims, who is she to cast aspersions on Gurudutt’s mother’s character? If the court could not have enough evidence what evidence Manjula has to substantiate her claims? One fails to understand whether she is doubts the court’s verdict or questioning the courts actions.
Secondly, why is she linking the character of the parents when she is supposed to look into the aspect pertaining to the attacks on the youngsters by the so called moral police and trying to help them?
Thirdly, does she expect young girls to attend birthday celebrations in their college uniforms? Why does she find it objectionable girls changing their uniform on reaching the venue?
Lastly, is she following in the footsteps of Nirmala Venkatesh the former Chairperson of the Women’s Commission who tried to subvert the 2009 pub attack by giving a different twist to that savagery act?
It is an open secret that Nirmala Venkatesh went on to join the BJP soon after that pub attack incident. It is anybody’s guess that Manjula is trying to befog the core issue with her insensate folly and will be rewarded suitably for her bravado of trying to demoralize the victims and their parents.
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