BENGALURU: The Bengaluru Rural police who are investigating the Saturday’s assault on a couple, hailing from Nagaland, are yet to come to a conclusion whether it was a racial attack. The police are now investigating whether the couple was involved in drag race, leading to the attack.
A senior police officer said that it was difficult to come to a conclusion on the case. “The couple has accused the four youths of abusing them and making racial comments, while the four accused have made a statement that it was couple who were involved in drag race and it was the woman who slapped them first for objecting to the drag race.
We have already arrested the accused and sent them to judicial custody. Now, we are verifying to know whether the youth made racial comments at the couple,” the officer said.
The couple had made allegations that the accused were drunk and started the quarrel without any reason. “The incident took place on Saturday and they were arrested on Monday.
Though we subjected them to medical test as per procedure, we could not ascertain whether they were drunk when the incident occurred. Only if they are subjected to medical check up within a few hours after the incident, it could be revealed whether they were drunk or not.
But in this case it was too late as they were arrested almost after two days. Moreover, no other people - except the four accused, the couple and their friend - have seen the incident,” the officer explained.
Clarifying that the four youths arrested in the case - Harish, Mahesh, Anant and Ratan - had no criminal background, the officer said the police were investigating whether the couple and their friend were involved in a drag race.
“We have to verify the DL/LL of the couple and we are also trying to know whether the couple indulged in drag race,” the officer added. When contacted Bengaluru Rural SP Ramesh B said it was too early to come to a conclusion.
“There are several aspects that have to be checked in the case. It will take some time to conclude whether it was an incident of racial attack.”
