The Anti-Communal Wing has not only cracked down on moral policing but also emboldened victims to come forward.
Injured auto-rickshaw driver Mohammed Ashiq (22) at a hospital in Mangaluru
The Anti-Communal Wing of the Karnataka State Police have been activated, especially under the Mangaluru commissionerate.
As a result, the cops in the communally sensitive Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in the coastal belt said they were seeing not only several instances of moral policing being averted, but also an increase in reportage of such incidents.
At least 11 people have been arrested and sent to jail after the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi police registered three cases of moral policing incidents recently — one even involving a police constable and members of his family.
Mangaluru City Commissioner of Police (CP) Kuldeep Kumar Jain told South First that the Anti-Communal Wing of the city and district police were tasked with the collection of information and ascertaining patterns regarding moral policing.
They are also expected to identify people with such ideologies who tend to indulge in such activities.
“Anti-Communal Wing of the police in Mangaluru have so far been instrumental in curbing multiple moral policing incidents in the city. The police personnel involved are establishing good contacts and their networks are deep-rooted, so that not only is awareness being spread to that level but information is also being collected on anyone who might attempt to take the law into their hands. This is acting as quite a deterrent,” Jain told South First.
Meanwhile, Dakshina Kannada Additional Superintendent of Police (AdSP) M Dharamappa told South First that the Anti-Communal Wing of the department, besides curbing moral-policing incidents, were also keeping a tab on social media activities in the district, such as posts on communally-related incidents on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).
“For the moral-policing incidents, we have directed our highway patrol and Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) teams to immediately reach the spot as first respondents at any place in our jurisdiction where a crowd is seen gathered or reported,” Dharmappa told South First.
A senior police officer noted that, if any instances involving students as victims came to the knowledge of the cops earlier, the victims would not be forthcoming with a complaint for their own reasons in a majority of the cases.
However, that is not the case now, with victims coming forward to lodge complaints even if they are students, added the cop.
Moral policing did not even spare a police constable in Bantwal. Around 9.50 pm on 27 July, civil police constable Kumar, who was on deputation in the Dakshina Kannada district, was walking with his wife and sister-in-law towards his guest house near Anna Chatra Hall close to Shree Annapoorneshwari Temple on BC Road when they were confronted by two men on a bike.
The two men had been following the trio for a while, according to the complaint filed by Kumar. The duo asked Kumar why he was accompanying a Hindu and a Muslim woman, to which Kumar replied that he was a policeman.
The two men then told Kumar that he was not supposed to accompany a Hindu and a Muslim woman even if he was a policeman.
When Kumar told them to leave them alone, the duo allegedly videographed Kumar’s wife and misbehaved with her. When Kumar resisted, the two abused and assaulted Kumar, who later filed a complaint with the Bantwal police.
The police registered a case under IPC Sections 354-A (sexual harassment), 354-D (stalking), 341 (wrongful restraint), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), and 504 (intentional insult).
Based on the FIR, the two men — identified by the cops as Manish Poojary and Manjunath — were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
In another incident, this one around 4.15 pm on 29 July at Kuntalpady in the Kasaba village of the Karkala taluk in the Udupi district, six MBBS medicos — including two women professors — from a private medical college in Mangaluru were travelling in a car.
They were returning from Sringeri to Mangaluru when they noticed that they were being followed by a group of men on bikes and a car. “Our car was being followed for around 5 km,” the complainant told South First.
When the car reached Kuntalpady in the Dakshina Kannada district bordering Udupi, the bikes waylaid the car and asked them to stop.
“We chose to sit inside the car and spoke to the men through a little gap from one of the car windows,” the complainant said.
The men — around five-six in number — asked the women inside the car if they were not ashamed to travel with Muslim men in the car. This was in full public view, where a crowd had gathered by then.
The men then threatened to break the glass if they did not open the car door. By then, one of the women had dialled 112 and the police were on their way.
Soon after the police reached the spot, the medicos from the car got down and explained the matter to the cops.
Karkala subdivision DySP Aravind Kalagujje along with the Karkala Police Station’s circle inspector also reached the spot and took a complaint from one of the women.
Soon after the case was taken up, the cops arrested five people — identified as Santhosh Nandalike (29), Karthik Poojary (23), Sandeep Poojary (30) Sunil Moolya (28), and Sujith Safaliga (28) — under IPC Sections 354-D (stalking), 341 (wrongful restraint), and 504 (intentional insult), read with Section 149 (with common intention).
The accused were then produced before a court which granted them bail. According to the police, the five are associated with a pro-Hindu organisation.
The Dharmasthala police arrested four persons for allegedly assaulting a 22-year-old auto-rickshaw driver named Mohammed Ashiq for dropping a woman passenger from Ujjire to the Dharmasthala KSRTC bus stand, from where she was headed to Bengaluru. The incident happened on the night of 2 August, the police said.
Ashiq’s father Hameed told South First: “My son was beaten up to the extent where he had to be admitted to hospital for four days. He sustained black eyes. His leg was hit and he could not walk.”
He added: “The assailants kicked him on his hip and back and also punched him in the chest and head. All this happened 100 metres from the Dharmasthala Police Station.”
The woman often availed of Ashiq’s services as an auto-driver. Thus, it was not out of the ordinary for her to call him on the night of 2 August to be dropped from Ujjire to the Dharmasthala KSRTC bus stand, where she had to catch a bus to Bengaluru.
Soon after Ashiq dropped the woman, four people came up to him and began posing questions to him. “They asked me why I wanted a Hindu girl when there were enough Muslim girls for me,” Ashiq told South First.
He told the police they then rained blows from all directions, hitting him on the head, face, chest, back, hips, and legs.
“I had kept ₹5,000 in my wallet in the auto, which was meant for a loan EMI for my vehicle. They stole it from my vehicle. I had to go on a trip the next morning for ₹7,500. That was also ruined,” he recalled.
“The men also asked the woman why she had come with that auto-rickshaw driver, but she became scared and told them she did not know anything and walked away,” a police source told South First.
The cops arrested three people on Saturday, 5 August, in this regard. They were identified as Avinash (26), Nandeep (20) — both residents of Dharmasthala — and Akshath (22), a resident of Uppinangady.
The fourth accused was taken into custody on Sunday, 6 August. However, the police are yet to regularise his arrest formalities, the police source added.
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