New Delhi:
A Christ University student hailing from Arunachal Pradesh was brutally attacked by his landlord in Bengaluru on Sunday. The gruesome incident has left the city's northeast (N-E) community fuming.
The landlord, Hemanth Kumar, allegedly attacked Higio Gungtey, and even made him lick his shoe. The incident followed a dispute over water. Even though several charges were filed against the landlord, sources said he managed to get anticipatory bail.
While members of the North East community voiced their opinion strongly that Kumar should have been booked under sections of racial attack, there are still no specific laws for such attacks.
Higio Gungtey's father expressed his despair over his son's thrashing and expressed his faith in the police and the legal system to take the culprit to task.
What happened to him was inhuman, I have trust in the police and I hope the culprit won't be spared: Father of Arunachal student pic.twitter.com/3LIflOqAQj
— ANI (@ANI_news) March 13, 2017
The Centre is still working on adding two sections -- 153C and 509A -- which deal with punishments specifically for racial attacks. These sections were proposed after the Centre set up the Bezbaruah Committee after Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, was killed in an alleged racial attack in Delhi in January 2014. However, they are still in the pipeline.
However, according to senior officers, cases can be booked under Section 295(A) and Section 153(A), which prescribe punishment for promoting enmity between communities and insulting other's religious feelings, respectively. These can be stretched to address racial attacks, they said.
Updates:Â
Used water for just 5 min,apologised to owner for same.He started beating me &humiliated by forcing me to lick his boots: Victim #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/J0FA09EYgq
— ANI (@ANI_news) March 13, 2017
#My office pursuing this case. When we are talking of safety of Indians abroad such incidents in our country are very saddening: Kiren Rijiju