Four Arunachal students held for assaulting gym instructor in Bangalore

Bangalore, Feb 28 :

Victim objected to noisy celebrations which disturbed neighbours

The Peenya police on Thursday arrested four students of a private engineering college for allegedly assaulting a gym trainer and injuring him badly in his eyes, late on Wednesday night.

The arrested are: Hage Nomo, Dari Sanju, Sange Norbu and Gem Tado, all aged between 20 and 22 years and from Arunachal Pradesh.

Bipin Gopalakrishna, 30, who sustained injuries on his face and in the eyes, is being treated as an in-patient at a private hospital. He is said to be out of danger.

The four students stay in the second floor of a residential building at Kirloskar Layout on Hesaraghatta Main Road. A group of around 15 youths from Arunachal Pradesh and other Northeastern states had gathered for a celebration. They were playing music at high volume. The celebrations went on till 1 am, disturbing the neighbours, police said.

Gopalakrishna, who stays on the third floor of the building came down and requested them to reduce the volume of the music. Some of those who were allegedly drunk picked a quarrel with Gopalakrishna. They allegedly pinned him down and started attacking him. Divya, Gopalakrishna’s wife, rushed downstairs after seeing the scuffle. The boys allegedly manhandled her when she tried to rescue her husband. Bipin and Divya managed to get into their house and called the police.

The police arrived at the spot and found the music being played at high volume. They asked the boys to stop the music immediately.

They took the four into custody and took Gopalakrishna to a hospital. Based on Divya’s complaint, the police arrested the four.

The police have decided to hold a meeting with local residents and representatives of Northeast region to ensure peace and harmony in the area, said DCP (North) Sandeep Patil.

Ruhi Tachu, general secretary of Arunachal Students Union of Karnataka who was present when the incident took place, told Deccan Herald that it was Gopalakrishna who first assaulted one of the arrested boys without any warning.

“We had gathered to celebrate a festival and admit that the noise levels had gone up a little. At around 11 pm, the instructor knocked on our door. The boy who opened the door was slapped thrice. The boy slapped Gopalakrishna in return and he was joined by the three others in assaulting the instructor,” said Ruhi.

He claimed that it was he who called the police after the incident.

“Initially, the police were listening to us. However, the gym instructor said something in the local language and the police suddenly wanted to arrest us and even me. We are ready to pay for the medical charges and tender an unconditional apology to Gopalakrishna. However, they are not ready to withdraw the FIR,” said Ruhi.