Pics: Pareekshith Shet
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (PS/SP)

Udupi, Mar 25: In an incident which happened at the auto rickshaw stand located near the Abharan Motors outlet at Rajiv Nagar, Nittur here in the early hours of Saturday March 25, an auto rickshaw was burnt down completely. As per information, it was the handiwork of a miscreant.

Sukesh, who owns the ill-fated auto rickshaw, has his house a little away from the said auto rickshaw stand. He was in the habit of parking his three-wheeler often at the auto stand before retiring for the night.

CCTV footage of cameras located in the neighbourhood show dim images of a youngster arriving in a scooty, pouring petrol on the auto rickshaw from a bottle, setting it on fire, and decamping. The incident happened at around 1 am on Saturday March 25.

It is suspected that the miscreant was heavily drunk. A complaint about the incident has been lodged in town police station here.

Sukesh, it is gathered, is the lone pillar of support for his family, and earning from running the auto rickshaw happens to be his sole avenue of income from which all expenses of the family have to be met. He had recently taken a bank loan of Rs 50,000 for repairing of the auto rickshaw. He has requested the police to nab the accused so that his loss would be recovered and he will be able to support his family as before again.

The total loss in this incident has been put at Rs 90,000. Roof of the auto stand also was burnt down in this incident.