Daijiworld Media Network - Beltangady (SP)

Beltangady, Apr 5: In an incident which happened late night on Tuesday April 3, two youngsters from Kokkada proved to be saviours for a woman and her children who travelled by the same bus from Bengaluru to Dharmasthala in which these two were seated. The fellow passengers who proved to be good Samaritans happen to be Rafiq Boladabailu and Aziz, both from Kokkada in the taluk.

Rafiq and Aziz were returning to Dharmasthala after visiting Bengaluru when they observed that a woman and her children seated near them were shedding tears now and then. They overheard the woman saying to someone on her cellphone that they were going to Dharmasthala to end their lives. Both the men then spoke to the woman, who said that she was Chandrakala from Ramanagara and that she had deserted the home of her husband without informing anyone, having been unable to withstand harassment meted out by her in-laws and that she was accompanying her children, Bhavana and Vidyashree. The woman briefly got down at Kottigehara when the bus stopped, and the young men who followed her from a distance, came to know that she had only Rs 20 with her. They provided food and water to the mother and her children.

After collecting the cellphone number of her husband, they contacted him. Her husband requested the young men to look after his wife and children, and promised to arrive soon to take them away. As the incident had the makings of turning into a communal issue in this sensitive region, the young men contacted a media man from Kokkada and conveyed information to district superintendent of police about the incident through him. Thereafter, the family was handed over to the police.

The woman's husband came there on Wednesday morning and took his wife and children away. The district superintendent of police was lavish in praising the youths for acting on time and saving three lives. Husband of the woman, Shivaji Rao, said that the family was not aware about the whereabouts of his wife and children since the previous night, and said that he was praying to the Lord to grace the two youngsters who had saved his wife and children.