Bengaluru: The 20-year-old student from Arunachal Pradesh, who was allegedly assaulted by the landlord on March 6 alleged on Monday that it was a racist attack.
Higio Gungtey, an under graduate student at Christ College, was allegedly assaulted by Hemanth Kumar B, an advocate and a resident of Doddamma Layout in Hulimavu.
On the day of incident, Gungtey had approached the police and had registered an assault case but had not alleged that it was a racist attack. Following his complaint, the police had arrested the advocate, who was later released on bail.
On Monday, the student along with his father Higio Tama met police and filed a fresh complaint against Hemanth Kumar that the latter attacked him as he hailed from a North-eastern state.
Gungtey states in the complaint that the accused made racial comments against him, and said that he belonged to a lower caste. Based on his complaint the police re-registered the case against the accused advocate, under section 295A.
DCP (South East) Dr. Boralingaiah told DC, “The student has given a fresh complaint stating that it was a racial attack. We have received it and are investigating. Further action will be taken against the accused based on the findings of the investigation.”
However, police sources said that prima facie there was no evidence to establish that it was a racist attack and that it was about the complainant staying in the rented accommodation without the owner’s permission along with his friends who had rented it.
“The accused told us he would have not given his house for rent to outsiders if he hated people from other states. As per the agreement in March 2016, he had rented out the house to two other students, who are Gungtey’s friends. Six months ago, Gungtey joined them but initially, the accused ignored it. Trouble started when other tenants frequently complained of shortage of water blaming these three students of using excess water,” an official said.
“Since five months, the accused was asking the two students to send Gungtey out, but they did not listen. On March 6, with other tenants complaining of shortage of water, the house owner took the matter up. He contacted the students over the phone and told them that their friend needs to leave his place. The students allegedly abused him over the phone. Enraged by this, the owner went to the house and questioned them for which they picked up an argument. In a fit of rage, the advocate assaulted Gungtey asking him to vacate immediately. The accused has also confessed to this. The information was corroborated with the neighbours who witnessed the incident and there is no evidence that the landlord made the student lick his boots,” the official added.
