BENGALURU: Hosakote police from Bengaluru rural on Saturday arrested a 40-year-old panchayat member on charges of assaulting a petrol bunk staff over a trivial issue on Friday afternoon.
Accused is Manjunatha Gowda, resident of Hasigala village and member of Hasigala Taluk Panchayat.
The petrol bunk is run by widower of Col Jojan Thomas, who was martyred on August 22, 2008 while fighting terrorist at Machil sector in Kupawara in Jammu and Kashmir. To mark Thomas's sacrifice, the Karnataka government had granted the petrol bunk at Hasigala village In 2016.
The incident of attack was narrated on social media by Thomas’s daughter –Meghana Thomas. The twitter posts narrating the incident was tagged to senior police officials including Director General and Inspector General of Police-Karnataka-Praveen Sood.
Police said Gowda assaulted a manger after arguing that the fuel filed to his goods truck was over-calculated. “The bunk staff had filled 189 litre of diesel. But Gowda argued saying tank capacity of his truck was 180 litre. However, the actual capacity of Gowda’s truck was 190 litre. Manager and others tried to convince Gowda, but he did not listen,” Hosakote police said.
Soon, a heated argument broke between Gowda and the manager and Gowda assaulted the manager. Some associates of Gowda forcibly stopped the functioning of the bunk.
“Acting on manager’s complaint, we have arrested Manjunath Gowda and he has been remanded to 14 day judicial custody. We have launched manhunt for Gowda's associates, who forced the bunk staff to stop functioning,” a senior police officer told STOI.