Student assault case: Prime accused arrested in Bengaluru

Soladevanhalli police have arrested the prime accused who, along with eight of his associates, had allegedly stripped and assaulted a 19-year-old college student on the outskirts of Bengaluru on June 30.

The accused, Hemant, 25, is a resident of Dasarahalli. He claims to be a student union leader and is named in two cases at Soladevanahalli, a police officer said. He was produced in court, which remanded him in judicial custody.

On July 7, Soladevanahalli police had announced the arrest of Shivashankar M., Yeshwant Patel, Rahul M., all 20, Hemanth, Tejas S., both 18, Rakesh R., 21, N. Shankar Gowda, 19, and Salman Khan, 23, for allegedly assaulting Kushal K.M. and forcing him to delete videos and pictures of a girl who had broken up with him.

The alleged assault took place on June 30 at AGB Layout, Hesaraghatta. Kushal and the minor girl, who is also one of the suspects, had broken up. She called Kushal to AGB Layout where the accused confronted him, allegedly forced him into a car and tortured him for several hours. He was heckled, humiliated, assaulted and stripped.

At the time of the arrest, the accused, many of them students, had taken interim bail from a court stating that they had to attend exams, which they were not eligible to do because of attendance shortage.

The police said that they will challenge the interim bail.