Five Bajrang Dal members have been arrested in Karnataka’s Mangaluru city for heckling a group of medical students, The New Indian Express reported on Tuesday. They questioned the women in the group “for being in the company of Muslim youngsters”, the police said.
The incident took place on Sunday evening when six students of KS Hegde Medical College were driving back from a trip to Malpe Beach in Udupi district. The group of Bajrang Dal members intercepted the car near a toll plaza in Surathkal area of Mangaluru and heckled the students.
A traffic police officer present at the spot intervened and stopped them for harming the students.
The arrested men have been identified as Preetham Shetty, Arshith, Srinivas, Rakesh and Abhishek, Mangaluru Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar told The New Indian Express.
“There were two Christian boys, one Muslim boy, and three Muslim girls in the car,” Kumar said.
The five arrested men have been booked under Sections 341 (wrongful restraintment), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (provoking by intentionally insulting) of the Indian Penal Code.
At least four incidents of vigilante groups attacking interfaith couples or group of friends have occurred in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka in the last two months, according to The Hindu.
Hindutva groups were behind three of the incidents while an Islamic group was involved in the other one, according to the newspaper.
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