Mangaluru : Five Bajrang Dal activists were arrested on charges of moral policing at Surathkal. In a viral video, the pro-Hindu right-wing activists were seen heckling and harassing a group of MBBS students of KS Hegde Medical College.

It may be recalled here that Savio T Alphonso(20) along with his classmates Vijay and Shameela, all students of a medical college at Derlakatte were returning after visiting Malpe and Manipal in their vehicle on Sunday evening when some Sangh Parivar activists who stopped the vehicle had abused and assaulted the students. Police Inspector Sharief who noticed the incident had tried to stop the attackers. Later Savio had lodged a complaint.

Traffic inspector Sharif, who was at the spot, intervened and stopped the activists from harming the students.

It was only after the video of the incident went viral that the Police Department chose to arrest the five men including Bajrangdal district pramukh Preetham Shetty, Suratkal unit leader Arshith, Srinivas, Rakesh and Abhishek on Monday night.

Meanwhile they were booked under IPC Section 341, 323, and 504 and then released on bail in the station itself. The decision to grant them bail in the station itself is now widely criticised.