Mangaluru : The Mangaluru South Police on Monday arrested five persons, said to be activists of Bajrang Dal, on the charge of kidnap and attempt to murder a youth near a shopping mall in South Mangaluru.

The five allegedly attacked the youth as he was found with a girl from another community.

The police gave the names of the arrested as Chetan (23) from Kunjathbail in Mangaluru, Rakshit Kumar (21) from Sringeri, Ashwin Raj (21) from Kandak in Mangaluru, Sushant Shetty (23) from Karkala and Sharath Kumar (20) from Car Street in Mangaluru city.

The police, who booked the accused under Sections 307 and 363 of the Indian Penal Code, are also searching for five more people allegedly involved in the incident.

The arrested youth were produced before the jurisdictional magistrate on Monday, who sent them to judicial custody for 15 days.

The victim, aged 21 from Udupi, was visiting the mall on Sunday afternoon along with a girl and had come out of the mall when the incident happened.

The accused asked the girl to go on her way and took the boy with them before thrashing him.

As the girl did not get any response to her telephone calls from her friend, she approached the police and filed a complaint.

The police said that the victim did not receive grievous injury and is at home now.