The cops cited the Model Code of Conduct and a lack of permission to protest at the Nagarathpete area as reasons for their action.
Nagarathpete protest on Tuesday over assault case
Days after the assault case over playing bhajans at a mobile servicing shop in Nagarathpete in Central Bengaluru, prominent BJP leaders in Karnataka attempted to further inflame the communally charged incident on Tuesday, 19 March.
The city police, however, took the BJP leaders into preventive custody and escorted them to the jurisdictional Halasuru Gate Police Station, citing the Model Code of Conduct.
The poll code came into effect as soon as the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the dates of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.
Tensions cut through the air — exacerbated by the summer heat for the policemen deployed to maintain law and order — at the busy Nagarathpete market in Central Bengaluru where most of the shops downed shutters since Tuesday morning after the BJP called for a peaceful protest march.
It was to take place on the Jumma Masjid Road in Siddanna Lane in the area.
Almost all police inspectors (PIs) and police sub-inspectors (PSIs) attached to the Central Police Division were present at each gully connecting the Nagarathpete area where the assault on a shopkeeper by five miscreants — allegedly over the playing of bhajans during Azaan time — occurred on Sunday evening.
Krishna Telecom — the mobile and computer servicing centre belonging to the victim and complainant Mukesh — remained closed on Tuesday.
His neighbours claimed that Mukesh had been hospitalised as he had pain all over his body due to the assault.
Hundreds of policemen were deployed in and around his shop, covering nooks and corners of every bylane that connected the Jumma Masjid Road in Siddanna Lane.
Expecting a large number of agitators coming in from different areas to Nagarathpete, the authorities had also deployed more than a couple of platoons of the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) personnel in and around the busy market area.
A 14-member Kabbadi squad with specialised crowd-control training was also deployed, a senior police officer told South First.
On Tuesday morning, BJP leader and sitting Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan visited Mukesh’s mobile and computer servicing shop in Nagarathpete and also spoke to several people there about the incident.
However, since there was not much of a crowd or protest except for some sloganeering, the police did not take the BJP leader into preventive custody.
Mohan was followed by BJP MLA S Suresh Kumar, and the crowd started swelling around the area. This prompted the city police to deploy additional KSRP personnel to keep the situation under control.
Suresh Kumar said: “The attack on the trader playing Hanuman Chalisa is very painful to see. Attempts are being made to disturb peace in the society.”
He was then taken into preventive custody and moved to the Halasuru Gate Police Station for further formalities.
Later, the news of Union Minister for Agriculture and Udupi-Chikkamgaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje visiting Nagarathpete spread locally.
A huge crowd — including hundreds of women BJP workers — started protesting against the ruling Congress in the state as Karandlaje arrived.
They shouted slogans like “We want justice” and blamed the Congress, claiming that there was an unspoken fatwa against playing Hanuman Chalisa in Karnataka.
The Union minister also went on to peddle some fake news — that the shopkeeper Mukesh who was attacked was behind bars — and said it was time to stand with him against what she said was blatant injustice.
Arrest us all..!!
It’s an open challenge.
Under the Congress govt in Karnataka, there’s an unspoken fatwa against playing Hanuman Chalisa. Shockingly, Shopkeeper Mukesh,who was attacked,himself sits behind bars. It’s time to stand with him, united against this blatant injustice! pic.twitter.com/TfDwAgxKSz— Shobha Karandlaje (Modi Ka Parivar) (@ShobhaBJP) March 19, 2024
The city police took Karandlaje into preventive custody as well, citing the Model Code of Conduct and that no permission was obtained for any kind of protest to be held in the area.
A little while after Shobha Karandlaje was escorted to the police station, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya arrived at Nagarathpete for the second time. Surya had visited and spoke with victim Mukesh on Monday.
Surya demanded an unbiased probe by the police and the immediate arrest — by Tuesday — of all the miscreants allegedly involved in the assault. He warned that the BJP would otherwise call a bandh.
“As the Model Code of Conduct is in place, and there was no permission obtained for any protest, we would take any leaders or their supporters who arrive at the spot into preventive custody and the law will take its course,” a senior police officer told South First.
Surya was also taken in a police jeep to the Halasuru Gate Police Station for further formalities.
Meanwhile, the Halasuru Gate police said they had arrested the two absconding accused — identified as Dyanish and Tarun — on Tuesday, and ruled out any communal angle in the case.
Mukesh drafted his complaint with the help of his brother Arjun Kumar. The police registered a case based on it against five people, who had been booked for attempted -murder, assault using dangerous weapons, criminal intimidation, and intentional insult, provoking a breach of peace.
With these two, all the five accused had been arrested, a senior police officer told South First.
Ruling out any communal angle to the case, a police officer privy to the investigation told South First that Mukesh had not mentioned anything about Hanuman Chalisa or Azaan in his written complaint.
“Later on, he (Mukesh) along with several others comes to the police station and recorded statements that he was playing Hanuman Chalisa bhajans in his speaker and the assailants engaged in heated arguments asking him about Azaan,” noted the senior police officer.
“Our question is why he (Mukesh) did not mention either Hanuman Chalisa or Azaan in the initial complaint, but included them in his recorded statement. The answer lies there,” he added.
When South First asked Mukesh why he had not mentioned Hanuman Chalisa or Azaan in the written complaint, he said: “I don’t know how to write or read Kannada, and so my sibling Arjun Kumar helped me draft the complaint. He might have missed it because he knows only 50 percent of Kannada.”
He added: “After the FIR was registered, I recorded by statement with the police, stating that I was playing Hanuman Chalisa at my shop and the miscreants came and threatened me as I was playing it during the Azaan time.”
Mukesh also told South First that if certain sections of the law are missing from the FIR, we would again approach the police and request them to include these sections.
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