Moral policing incident in Kasaragod

PTI, Jul 24, 2023, 11:31 AM IST

An incident of moral policing was reported from this northern Kerala district when a group of four, including two women, were allegedly restrained and harassed by some locals over them travelling together, police said on Monday.

The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when the group were returning from Bekal Fort here after celebrating the birthday of one of them, police said.

On the way back they stopped at an eatery to have food and on coming out, some persons restrained them from leaving in their car and questioned them as to what they were doing there, an officer of Melparamba police station said.

An altercation also ensued as a result, according to visuals of the incident shown on TV channel.

Subsequently, police were informed and when officers arrived at the spot, they took into custody four persons who had allegedly restrained the group of four and had harassed them, the officer said.

No one was injured in the incident, the officer said.

The arrest of the four has not yet been recorded, police said.

An FIR under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 354 (outraging a woman’s modesty), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294(b) (obscene acts or songs) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC has been registered against the four accused, police said.

Besides that, the accused have also been booked under section 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence commit­ted in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the officer said.