Anti-socials rule the roost in the sea beach area here while the hoteliers are worried over the growing attacks on tourists in the beach. The police, however, in their conventional style maintain that the offenders would be arrested.
The much-talked-about deployment of tourist police along the beach is of no use as such assaults on visitors are on the increased. On Sunday evening, a tourist couple was been manhandled, looted and molested by anti-socials while they were sitting in front of a hotel on chairs.
According to an FIR lodged with the police, Amit Kumar Makhija (40) and his wife of Ramnagar in Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh along with his parents came to Puri and were staying in hotel Beach Hut in the Chakratirtha area. While the couple was sitting, a group of youths came to them and passed lewd comments on his wife.
When Amit protested, they punched blows and left him bleeding from head and eyebrows. His wife was also roughed up and allegedly molested while she came to rescue her husband. They snatched Rs 5,000 from them before fleeing the place
The incident was reported to the Pentakota police outpost, but no visible action was taken by the police until the issue was informed to district Superintendent of Police Anup Kumar Sahoo, who entrusted the case to Inspector of Sea Beach police station PC Sahoo and asked him to arrest the culprits within 24 hours.
A criminal case has been registered. During preliminary investigation, it was found that some youths of a local club had come to the hotel to collect donation for the coming Ganesh Puja from the hotel owner. And they were the culprits. They all have been identified and would be nabbed soon, the investigating police inspector said.