Jewellers protest ‘police harassment’

Jewellers protest ‘police harassment’

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Apr 23, 2014: The members of the Udupi District Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Association staged a dharna in front of the District Police Office here on Tuesday in protest against “police harassment”.

Addressing the protesters, Balakrishna Acharya, president of the association, said that sometimes thieves sold the stolen jewellery to goldsmiths. Usually, when goldsmiths realised the items were stolen, they returned them to the police.

But many times, when thieves were caught, they mislead the police on the quantity of gold sold to the jewellers. The officers then harassed the goldsmiths during their recovery operations.

The Kaup police had recently harassed a goldsmith, Chethan Acharya, demanding more gold from him than that was sold to him by thieves. After a “false case” was registered against him, Mr. Acharya had gone into hiding, the president said.

The association demanded the police drop the case against Mr. Acharya, failing which, a State-wide agitation would be launched.

The police should give full details of such cases to the office-bearers of the association when they were undertaking recovery operations. Before arresting any member of the association, the police should inform the president of the association, Mr. Balakrishna Acharya said.

Santosh Kumar, Additional Superintendent of Police, urged the association to produce Mr. Chethan Acharya before the police. If found innocent, the police would leave him. The police would look into the complaints of the association, he said.