In recent incidents in Mangaluru, Raichur, and Shivamogga, 14 people have been arrested and a minor boy detained for moral policing.
The Someshwara temple beach in Ullal, Mangaluru. (Supplied)
Even though newly-inducted Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has declared zero tolerance of moral policing and has cracked the proverbial whip to curtail such incidents, as well as hate posts on social media in the state, a few parts of Karnataka don’t seem to have got the memo.
The latest incident is from coastal Karnataka — the Someshwara temple beach in Ullal, Mangaluru, to be exact. Six men were arrested and a minor detained by the Ullal police on Thursday night, 1 June, after they allegedly assaulted three male paramedical students for coming to beach with their female college-mates from the Hindu faith, the police said.
The incident happened around 7:15 pm at the Someshwara temple’s beach.
"There should be no discrimination on the basis of religion while following the law," @siddaramaiah.
"No moral policing anymore. We will put an end to it," @CMofKarnataka @siddaramaiah says. pic.twitter.com/BJj44QzNlz
— Anusha Ravi Sood (@anusharavi10) May 23, 2023
According to the police, three male students of a reputed college in Kankanady, Mangaluru — all of them Christians from Kerala — had gone with their female college-mates to the Someshwara temple beach on 1 June. They are from the second year of their professional course, the police added.
A group of people, who were observing the students on the beach, went up to them and asked them for their college identity cards. Soon after the students showed them their IDs — in which the boys’ IDs showed their Christian names — the men took the male students separately and questioned them.
When the students justified that they were all friends and college-mates, and that they had come to the beach to watch the sunset and have fun, the group of men — which included a minor — started assaulting the trio.
“The three students were beaten with belts, lathis, and with even glass bottles. They were punched, kicked, and had stones thrown at them by the men, who are all locals and live within a 3-4-kilometre radius. The three have sustained grievous injuries,” a senior police officer told South First.
Meanwhile, the three women students called up the police, who rushed to the spot. However, by then, a few passersby on the beach had gathered and tried to calm down the fighting men. By the time the police arrived, the men fled from the spot.
The police and the passersby helped the injured students reach a private hospital from where the police took up a complaint from one of the assaulted students and registered a case.
As the three students were grievously hurt, the police have booked the accused under charges of attempt to murder, assault with dangerous weapons, unlawful assembly, and rioting.
Soon after the case was registered, a team of police picked up six of the accused — identified as Yathish, Sachin, Suhaan, Akhil, Bhavishya, and Jeetu — who were arrested, and also detained a minor boy who was also involved in the incident.
The accused told the police that they are not affiliated to any religious outfits, but were followers of the Bajrang Dal, a senior police officer told South First.
Mangaluru police commissioner Kuldeep Kumar Jain visited the Someshwara temple beach and took stock of the situation.
Of all the newly appointed ministers, I demanded more time from @DrParameshwara.
We had a quick chat about the need to crack down on moral policing in the state especially in coastal Karnataka.
He is aware of the huge expectations people have WRT him and his department. pic.twitter.com/oum2LfhGwO
— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) June 2, 2023
Meanwhile, right-wing activists and BJP leaders rushed to the Ullal station and urged the police officers not to arrest the “innocent” men who questioned students from another state who indulged in “obscene” behaviour at the beach.
“Someshwara temple beach is a sacred place and the local men who questioned the students should be released immediately,” police sources quoted the pro-Hindu activists’ demands. However, the police said that the students were not involved in any obscene behaviour and they convinced the activists that they had enough evidence on the assault incident.
Mangaluru PC Jain told South First on Friday, “We have arrested six of the accused and detained a seventh as he is a minor. One more accused has gone absconding. We have credible information and we will secure them by tonight.”
In another incident in Raichur’s Lingsugur sub-division, a 40-year-old right-wing activist was arrested for posting — on his WhatsApp status — that Muslim women are baby-making factories. The right-winger, identified as Raju Tampak, had posted on his Whatsapp status on Thursday afternoon, which went viral in Lingsugur.
Realising that his tweet had gone viral among Muslim groups, who started gathering in front of the Lingsugur police station, he deleted his WhatsApp status. However, screenshots of his status were still going viral and, by Thursday evening, around 200 people had gathered in front of the police station, demanding the police to register a case and arrest Tampak.
The police collected the evidence and registered a case under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.) and 505 (1) (C) (with intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community).
Tampak was then arrested, produced before a magistrate, and remanded to judicial custody. By that time, around 400 to 500 people gathered in front of the police station and the Raichur district police had to deploy reserve police force to control and disperse the crowd.
In yet another incident of moral policing in Shivamogga, seven people from the minority community have been arrested for assaulting three medical college students, one of whom was dropping off a woman college-mate at her house on 26 May.
A group of men who had just concluded their prayers at a mosque near Janda Katte in Khalandhar Nagar, observed that the youth was dropping a woman from their community.
The group approached the young man and asked him for his name. When he said that he was Vinay Kumar, they questioned him rudely, asking why he was dropping off a girl from their community, and demanded to know what was going on between them.
Heated arguments ensued when the group started assaulting Vinay, who phoned his friends Abhi and Yeshwanth. When both of them arrived at the scene, the group thrashed all three of them and even threatened to kill them.
By then, a few senior members of the general public gathered and separated the group and called the police. When the police arrived, the assailants fled the spot.
The cops took up a complaint from Vinay Kumar and registered a case booking seven accused for criminal intimidation, intentional insult provoking breach of peace, rioting, unlawful assembly, and assault. All the seven accused from the minority community were arrested and sent to jail.
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