http://www.hindu. Sudipto Mondal PERAJE (KODAGU DISTRICT): The police have finally swung into action over a year after a Dalit youth from here was allegedly abducted by Bajrang Dal activists from his home, taken to Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district, stripped, paraded and beaten in public. "The Bantwal police appear to have come under pressure that prevented them from filing a case against activists of the organisation. The department has contacted the victim (late on Thursday evening) and invited him to file a case," said Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao on Friday after The Hindu brought the incident to his notice. "I begged for clothes…nobody would even give me a rag to cover myself. What hurt more than the beating was that I was paraded naked before hundreds of people," said Sridhar (27), the victim of the attack, when The Hindu, based on a tip off, visited him at his home a few days ago. He is a plantation worker from one of the most ostracised Scheduled Caste communities in the region called "Mugera". Recalling the incidents of a two years ago, he said how on July 5, 2009, around 10 Bajrang Dal activists came to his home, 100 km from Mangalore, posing as policemen. They accused him of kidnapping an upper caste girl from Bantwal named Anitha (22). "Instead of the police station, they took me to a Bharatiya Janata Party office in Bantwal where they took turns in torturing me," Mr. Sridhar said. At around 5 p.m., he was "dragged out of the BJP office, stripped and beaten by a large crowd that paraded on the streets" of Bantwal. "I kept pleading with the crowd that I never ever heard of Anitha," he said. Feigning ignorance Asked to respond, the district chief of the Bajrang Dal, Sharan Pumpwell, confirmed that his organisation initially suspected Sridhar's involvement in Anitha's disappearance. "But I do not know anything about the beating. I will find out and get back," he said on Tuesday, but has not answered phone calls from The Hindu since then. Anitha, who went missing in June 2009, is the sister of Madhava Kulal, a powerful Bajrang Dal leader in Bantwal. Over three months after the atrocity against Mr. Sridhar, the Dakshina Kannada police discovered that Anitha and 17 other women had actually been murdered by a serial killer named Mohan Kumar. Ironically, Mr. Sridhar's sister Cauvery (35) too was one of the 17 victims of Mohan Kumar. Police sources said Anitha had received several calls on her landline from a number that belonged to Sridhar's sister Cauvery. After killing Cauvery, Mohan Kumar used her phone to call Anitha, the police said. The Bajrang Dal activists traced the address of Cauvery and reached her house on July 9, 2009. On not finding her, they took her brother Sridhar along with them. He survived his ordeal, and went into hiding in Kerala for several weeks. The case came to light when Saraswati, a Dalit activist, tried to file a complaint with the Bantwal police. "But they said that we should file the complaint in the Madikeri (rural) police station.There we were to go back to the Bantwal station," Ms. Saraswati said. She said she submitted a complaint at the FIR helpdesk at the Dakshina Kannada Police Superintendent's office but did not get any response.
Victim was allegedly stripped, paraded and beaten up by Bajrang Dal activists 
PAINFUL MEMORIES:Sridhar (27), victim of the attack, with his family at his house in Peraje village of Kodagu district.
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Sudipto Mondal
Senior Correspondent
The Hindu, Mangalore Bureau
(+91) 98860 47770
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