Scribe manhandled for opposing lewd comments

BHUBANESWAR: A city-based scribe was thrashed by some youths for protesting their obscene behaviour at a cinema hall under Saheed Nagar police limits on Saturday.
Kapilendra Pradhan, who works with regional daily ‘Prameya’ here, requested the three youths to go outside as they were hurling expletives and passing lewd comments despite being aware that the audience had many women.

Instead of paying heed, the three started manhandling Pradhan. 
“I went to see a movie at Maharaja theatre with one of my friends at 11.30 am. The three youths started behaving indecently ever since they arrived. There were many women in the nearby rows but they won’t relent. I just asked them to go outside as everyone wanted to watch the movie peacefully but they started thrashing me,” Pradhan said.
On being attacked, the scribe phoned one of his colleagues and asked him to inform the police. The youths called their friends, who were inside the hall, following which they continued their assault. They also unsuccessfully attempted to drag Pradhan out of the hall. The cops arrived at the spot and rescued the journalist.

Shockingly, no attempts were made to nab the youths from the spot.
It was after a delegation of Editors and senior journalists met DGP Dr RP Sharma demanding stringent action that Saheed Nagar police nabbed the three.
“A case has been registered and instruction has been given to police for taking action against the youths as per the law and submit chargesheet at the earliest,” Dr Sharma said.

ACP Kishore Mund said one of the three youths is a student of Utkal University and two others are ex-students. They have been identified as Soumya Ranjan Mohapatra, Subrat Biswal and Ananta Samantaray.
Meanwhile, the DGP has directed Commissionerate Police to assess the security measures at cinema halls for safety of the viewers, including women and college girls.