Kannada gottilla: Man thrashed in Bengaluru for speaking in Hindi

Bengaluru, July 27: A 35 years man HR consultant, working at a private firm in Bengaluru, was thrashed by a group of men as he could not speak in Kannada. The incident took place near Corporation Bank in RT Nagar on July 24.

Dhruv Gupta (35), the victim and his two friends had gone to a shop in RT Nagar around 11.30 pm to buy cigarettes. When Dhruv spoke to the shopkeeper and asked him for cigarettes in Hindi, a group of five to six men standing nearby heard him and didn't like it.

One of the men from that group interrupted the conversation between Dhruv and the shopkeeper and told Dhruv to speak in Kannada. When Dhruv ignored him, the accused came up to Dhruv, addressed him directly and demanded that he speak in Kannada. Dhruv replied that he did not know Kannada as he is from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh but is trying to learn the language after shifting to Bengaluru.

But Dhruv's explanation did not go well with the accused, who started abusing Dhruv in Kannada. This is when the argument turned violent. One of the men who was with the accused, and holding a helmet in his hand, thrashed Dhruv with it leaving him with a bleeding nose. Two of Dhruv's friends who were with him, intervened and joined the scuffle but they were bashed by the gang, as reported by the Bangalore Mirror.

The victim claimed that the members of the gang were drunk and they took up the scuffle for no reason, he later added that such kind of incidents proves that outsiders are not safe in Bengaluru anymore. Dhruv has suffered a serious injury on his nose and visited the Baptist hospital for treatment.

FIR has been registered at the RT Nagar police station under the sections 341(Punishment for wrongful restraint), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means).

"Police should take strict action against those who create trouble for outsiders," says the victim.

"The accused have not yet been identified, but they seem to be local residents of the area. The fight took place due to some miscommunication between the complainant and the accused. Officials are in search of the accused and investigations are going on," stated an officials from the RT Nagar police station.