Mangalore police arrested two persons and detained four, a day after CPM MLA's girl and her Muslim male friend were attacked allegedly by Bajrang Dal activists.

Two youths, hailing from Manjeshwar and employed in Mangalore, have been arrested for forcibly taking away Shruthi, daughter of CPM MLA from Manjeshwar, C K Kunhambu when she was traveling in a bus with a youth belonging to a minority community on Friday, reported PTI quoting police on Saturday.

Shruthi was attacked allegedly by a group of Bajrang Dal activists when she was returning to her hostel in Mangalore after a brief holiday at home on Friday evening.

The brother of her classmate, Shabib, who was travelling in the same bus, was also thrashed by the suspected saffron activists, who took offence to the girl talking to a Muslim boy. Shruthi is a Class-XII student of St. Aloysius College in Mangalore.

Shruthi said she and Shabib were dragged out of the bus by four men, aged between 25 and 30 years, who forced them to an autorickshaw before taking them to a house in Padil area of Mangalore. ``They hit me and later they took turns to beat Shabib,'' Shruthi told TOI over phone from Mangalore.

Her mother Sumathi said her daughter met Shabib in the bus and some people might have informed the rampaging men that the two were talking to each other. The bus was stopped at Pumpwell Circle in Kanganadi, about 1 km from Mangalore. The attackers let off Shruthi after realising that she was an MLA's daughter, but assaulted Shabib, sources said.

"We are trying to find out whether the attackers belonged to Bajrang Dal or Sri Ram Sene," said a police officer.

Sri Ram Sene's Karnataka state convenor Prasad Attavar denied his outfit's role in the incident. ``We are not connected with this. This incident is being pointed to us to sully our image,'' said Attavar.

Shruthi's father Kunhambu told reporters, "A Muslim boy talking to a Hindu girl is a non-issue in Kerala. Goondas have assaulted them for no reason."

Karnataka home minister V S Acharya told TOI that he learnt of the incident when the Range IG of Kerala contacted him at 6.05pm, while he was on his way to mumbai.

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