Mangaluru, May 7: Communal vigilantism is now openly endorsed by a former district-in-charge minister of Dakshina Kananda, who on Thursday led a group of Sangh Parivar activists which laid siege to a police station in the city demanding the release of a few right wing extremists, who had allegedly indulged in ‘kidnapping’ and ‘immoral policing’.
Krishna J Palemar, an influential leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in coastal Karnataka, who was defeated by Mohiuddin Bava of Congress party in 2013 assembly election in Mangaluru North constituency, was apparently encouraging the protesters, who gheraoed Urwa Police Station.
The protest came a day after a group of Bajrang Dal activists allegedly kidnapped three youths—two boys and a girl—and assaulted them before handing them over to police.
The victims have been identified as Mallesh, his friend Sadiq and a teenage girl from Dharwad district. Sadiq from Gangavati, who was working as the crew of a private bus in Mangaluru, was staying with a man named Mallesh near Krishnapura, Surathkal.
It is learnt that the 17-year-old girl came to Mangaluru from Dhaward by a private bus on Wednesday for some personal work. She was supposed to meet her relative Mallesh and his friend Sadiq, with whom she had fallen in love.
Coincidentally the bus driver, identified as Purushottam, a Bajrang Dal activist, overheard the telephonic conversation of the “Hindu girl” onboard the bus with a “Muslim boy”, and immediately informed his fellow Bajrang Dal activists in Mangaluru.
Acting on the tip off, a group of “immoral police” gathered near KPT in the city. The driver did not allow the girl to get down at Surthkal and stopped the bus near KPT.
As soon as she got down, the group gheraoed her and forced her to call her two male friends to the spot. When the two boys reached the spot the miscreants kidnapped the couple and took them to a house in Kodikal. The Bajrang Dal activists also thrashed the youths before handing them over to the police.
The police inquired the victims, who later lodged a complaint against the assailants. Based on the complaint, the cops arrested six miscreants including the bus driver Purushottam. The other five arrested have been identified as Sharat, Veera Babu, Narendra, Anil and Santosh. In his complaint, Mallesh has accused the Bajrang Dal activists of kidnapping his relative.
It is learnt that local BJP leaders exerted pressure on the police to release the accused immediately. However, the police refused to release them. Following this, dozens of right wing activists laid siege to the Urva Police Station raising slogans against the cops and Karnataka government.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Palemar charged the police of falsely implicating Hindu activists in immoral policing case. “The arrested are innocent Hindu youths and patriots. Police are trying to spoil their future by implicating them in false cases,” he said threatening to intensify the protest if the cops failed to fulfill the demand of the protesters. The protesters claimed the activists had “saved” the minor girl who was being pushed to “sex work”.
The protest came to an end after the arrested miscreants were granted bail by a jurisdictional court on Thursday.
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