Bengaluru: The Indiranagar police on Tuesday detained nine men in connection with an assault on New Year’s Eve, a day after the footage of the incident surfaced showing a group of men brutally attacking three people riding a two-wheeler.
The police have identified the arrested persons as Ambareesh, Lokesh, Shekhar, Vinod, Nandeesh, Shakti Prasad, Charan, Chetan and Stephen. The incident took place in the Indira Nagar area in the city.
The incident comes a year after allegations of mass molestation and sexual assault on New Year’s Eve in the city known as the country’s information technology capital.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar said the incident came to light on January 15.
“The video was released as a result of a rivalry between two gangs,” he said without providing further details.
In the video, a group of men is seen celebrating on the 6th Main Road in Indira Nagar when a two-wheeler with two men and a woman approaches. An altercation follows after the two-wheeler grazes against one of the revelers. The group then assaults the two men while one person hits the woman.
Kumar said a suo motu case of assault and public indecency has been registered and the two accused men were picked up on the basis of the video.
“It appears to be a case of road rage in a bylane of Indira Nagar,” the commissioner said.
“We have tried to reach out to the victims, but even if we cannot contact them we will continue investigating based on the suo motu case,” he added.
This year the police increased deployment on New Year’s Eve after the incidents of sexual assault in 2017.
