mangalore today

Pub attack case: All accused acquitted


Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Mar 12, 2018: The Third JMFC Court has on March 12, Monday acquitted all the  accused in the 2009 pub attack case, citing lack of enough evidence.


Pramod Mutalik...


There were a total of 30 accused  in the case with a majority of them belonging to right wing outfits.  Asha Nayak and Vinod were the advocates for the accused.
 
The incident had taken place on January 24, 2009 at the Amnesia-The Lounge on  Balmatta Road wherein some miscreants had assaulted young men and women who were at the lounge. The incident had hit headlines across the nation.

Sri Rama Sene leader Pramod Mutalik  who was also one of the accused in the case,  was present at the court when the judgement was delivered.

According to advocate Vinod, the court examined 12 witnesses of whom nine were independent and three were official. About 27 witnesses were marked but many did not turn up. There were a total of 30 accused of which two died and two had not appeared before the court.

Senior advocate Asha Nayak said that law has taken its own course. “Everybody made had hue and cry about the case. If the girls were really aggrieved, they should have come forward. It would have been a lesson to the people that, if such crimes are committed, it would end in conviction. In this case, the aggrieved girls did not support. The constitution says that we not only have rights but also duties to perform,” Asha said.


Reacting to the development, Muthalik said,  ’’it was a victory of truth.’’  "We believe that this is a triumph of victory. Cases under some 10 sections were filed against us and we have emerged victorious today," Pramod Muthalik told reporters outside the JMFC court.

The attack on youngsters in a pub in Mangaluru allegedly by the members of Sri Rama Sene in 2009 had grabbed national headlines for moral policing and violence in Karnataka’s coastal city.

The outfit’s chief Muthalik too gained notoriety due to the incident and even forced the BJP to cancel his membership from the party within five hours after he joined in March 2014.