Chikkamagaluru: The district police have picked up four persons from the DK district for creating trouble during last Datta Jayanti observance. This was announced by Santosh Babu, the district’s superintendent of police, at a media meet at the weekend.
Flashback
Bajrang Dal district convener Praveen Khandya and his men had made every effort to ensure that the Datta Jayanti observance at the Baba Budan Giri hills at the end of December 2015 would go on peacefully.
But some Sangh Parivar volunteers from Dakshina Kannada district appeared to be hell-bent on violating the court restrictions. Whereas the hoisting of any flags at certain points had been forbidden by court orders, these outsiders sparked off disturbances.
They crossed the barricades and tried to put up a saffron flag at the disputed land and the cave shrine. When Khadya tried to stop them from doing so, there were arguments between him and the trouble-makers. Khadya’s supporters told the DK men that they were outsiders and they could get away safely. But those from the local areas would suffer the consequences, they argued.
When some media photographers tried to capture these developments, the miscreants tried to snatch and destroy their cameras. The police intervened and controlled the situation, yet one of the cops was injured in the melee.
Chikkamagaluru MLA C T Ravi and Karkala MLA V Sunil Kumar, who were watching the events mutely, realized the ugly turn things were taking and they reportedly left the place quietly, with an excuse that they had to attend a meeting elsewhere.
Even while on their way back to Mangaluru in their vehicles, the DK crowd created problems on the way. They reacted violently when their vehicles were stopped by the police because a procession relating to Eid Milad-un-Nabi was being held in front.
A Maruti Omni car had been damaged because of stone-pelting on the same occasion. Later on, there were reports that the same groups had stopped over at certain points on the ghat roads leading to DK district and harassed tourists in passing vehicles.
Speaking to this correspondent, a few Bajrang Dal members said that those coming from DK showed no accountability since they would, after creating trouble, leave the place safely, whereas the locals had to be answerable to whatever happened there. Yet another one said that the DK groups came only to create problems and had no religious purpose in their visit.
There are reports that some innocent individuals from here were booked by the police, instead of catching those who had come from other districts. They are also cross that only four persons were arrested from DK, while in reality, hundreds were involved in the disturbances.
One or two them went to the extent of saying that if the situation continued, they would stop people coming from other places or introduce a filtering system to enter Baba Budan Giri surroundings the next time around.
Santosh Babu gave the names of the four arrested as Prashant, Shrikant and Shyamsunder from Uppinangady and Shrinivas Kambar from Charmadi. After proper study of footages from CCTV and photographers’ cameras, more arrests could be made, said police sources.
Santosh Babu gave the names of the four arrested as Prashant, Shrikant and Shyamsunder from Uppinangady and Shrinivas Kambar from Charmadi. – Report
Hey Rampa, what were their names? any inside info? 😉
Chikkamagaluru MLA C T Ravi and Karkala MLA V Sunil Kumar, who were watching the events mutely-Reports Dear readers, Since 1999, the Sangh Parivar has conducted the Datta Jayanthi celebrations with impunity, encouraged by a pliant district administration. In that year the District Commissioner set up a managing committee to look into the so-called financial irregularities in the shrine by the Sajjade Nishan. “The committee comprises largely Bajrang Dal activists and Sangh sympathisers,” . The allegation of financial irregularities was only a ruse to take control over the management of the shrine. Irregularities can be looked into separately, he argues.… Read more »