Activists of the Hindu Jagaran Vedike allegedly attacked three persons suspecting that they were stealing a bull near T.T. Road at Kaipady village on the outskirts of Kundapur town in Udupi on 17 October. The three persons — Basheer, Batheesh and Mohammed — were injured in the attack and are being treated in a private hospital. They alleged that three policemen who were at the spot did not prevent the attack. Six persons arrested in connection with the attack have been released on bail.
According to the injured, a bull owned by Mohammed, a farmer, went missing from Kodi village on 17 October. After it was sighted at Kaipady village, Mohammed went there, tethered the bull to a pole near the house of Narasimha and returned to his village to make arrangements to bring back the animal in the evening. When Mohammed and five of his relatives went on a boat to Kaipady in the evening, they saw a group of people at the place where the bull was tethered. As soon as they reached the spot, the people attacked them. While three of them escaped, the others were thrashed with wooden sticks. “We tried telling them about the bull being lost. We urged them to come to our village to verify. But they were not in a mood to listen to us… The policemen who were at the spot kept quiet when we were being attacked,” Mohammed said.