Police arrest four more in Ullal stabbing case

The Mangaluru City Crime Branch Police on Friday announced the arrest of four youngsters in connection with three stabbing incidents reported in sensitive Ullal police station limits on Monday and Tuesday.

Commissioner of Police M. Chandra Sekhar told reporters here that R. Rahul alias Back Rahul (20), a plumber, Pavan Raj (20), a painter, Edwin Rahul D’ Souza alias Puchche Rahul (18), a PU student, and Karthik (19), a diploma student, were caught at BC Road near here. All the four, and Shivaraj, arrested on April 27, were booked for the offence of attempt to murder, he said.

Shivaraj and the four had allegedly attacked Ibrahim Nasfan, who was working in the Mangaluru fishing harbour in the early hours of April 25.

Again, the four accused, excluding Shivaraj, had attacked three youth in the early hours of Tuesday at Thokkottu and another youth on Tuesday afternoon at Kallapu, all in Ullal police limits. It was suspected that the attacks were acts of retaliation to the murder of fisherman Raju Kotian in Ullal on April 12.

Mr. Chandra Sekhar said that all the accused were directly involved in the crime and the police are investigating to know if there were more persons involved in the crime. Since Tuesday, police personnel were deployed in large numbers in and around Ullal, with more than 600 men from the KSRP, the KSISF and civil police to ensure normality.

Counselling

When pointed out at the age profile of the accused, who are in their early 20s and their future, Mr. Chandra Sekhar said that the police would identify those youngsters who are into acts of mischief and arrange for counselling through community leaders. Trained counsellors, even from NGOs, would be drafted for the purpose, he said.

Since two of the accused, Pavan Raj and Karthik, were allegedly involved in criminal activities earlier and were out on bail, the police would also look at corrective justice system to bring them onto the right path.

“We would involve community members as societal control is very much important in such cases,” Mr. Chandra Sekhar said.

Deputy Commissioners of Police M. Shantharaju (Law and Order) and Sanjeev M. Patil (Crime and Traffic) were present.

It is suspected that the attacks by the accused were acts of retaliation to the murder of fisherman Raju Kotian in Ullal on April 12