Bengaluru, June 20 (IANS) The Karnataka High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Superintendent of Police (SP), Mangaluru, in connection with midnight raids conducted on the residences of Hindu activists and RSS leaders in the communally-sensitive Mangaluru district.
A Division Bench headed by Justice Sunil Dutt issued the notice on Friday. Senior Counsel Arun Shyam appeared on behalf of the petitioner in court.
The High Court has directed SP K. Arun to submit all related documents concerning the raids. The court further cautioned the police department against taking any action that violates the law.
The order was passed while hearing a petition filed by U.G. Radha, a resident of Uppinangady in Mangaluru district, who challenged the police action.
Radha, a senior citizen, alleged that on the night of June 1, police personnel arrived at her residence and uploaded the photograph in this connection to a departmental app.
She submitted to the court that when she questioned their actions, the police claimed they were acting on orders from senior officers. She further stated that the officers did not show any documents authorising the action.
Radha alleged that the police violated her individual liberties and fundamental rights. “I was treated like an accused. This has caused damage to my privacy and reputation, and the entire episode has resulted in both mental and physical trauma,” she stated in her petition. She has demanded a compensation of Rs 20 lakh from the police department.
Radha has also lodged complaints with the Karnataka State Police Complaints Authority and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Both agencies have issued notices to the Mangaluru SP seeking clarification.
Following the murder of history-sheeter and Hindu activist Suhas Shetty, which triggered a series of stabbing incidents in the Mangaluru region, and the murder of a local mosque’s secretary, the state government transferred both the Mangaluru Police Commissioner and the Mangaluru SP, appointing new officers in their place.
In the aftermath, the police launched a crackdown on Hindu activists and RSS leaders, including issuing externment orders.
Senior RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat challenged the externment order in the Karnataka High Court and secured a stay.
The Karnataka government had officially inaugurated a Special Action Force (SAF) unit, the Communal Violence Control Force, in Mangaluru, aimed at preventing communal strife and serial revenge killings in coastal Karnataka and Malnad (hilly) regions of the state, thereby ensuring law and order on June 13.
The Congress-led government created this special force following incidents of revenge killings, mob lynching, and a series of stabbing incidents in the Mangaluru region. These crimes threatened the law and order system in the communally sensitive Mangaluru district.
The entire coastal region had become tense, and these incidents threatened to disrupt peace in the state.
The government has also announced that the personnel serving in the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) will be reassigned to the Communal Violence Control Force.
The Karnataka BJP delegation led by state BJP President B.Y. Vijayendra, on June 9, visited Mangaluru and warned the authorities not to threaten Hindu activists and organisations in the region and urged the administration not to yield to the pressure of the government.
He said, “We have told the district administration and police chiefs not to visit houses in the middle of the night and threaten Hindu activists and organisations.”
“After the Suhas Shetty murder case, under the pretext of maintaining law and order, the ruling Congress government is engaging in hooliganism through the police department,” BJP leader Vijayendra alleged.
“Police are visiting our workers’ homes in the middle of the night. In Sullia and other Assembly constituencies, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Hindu Jagarana Vedike leaders are being targeted,” he said.
“Police are going to Hindu leaders’ houses at 3 A.M. and knocking on their doors. They are taking their photographs. In one instance, when a leader was not at home, a woman constable showed a revolver and warned his parents, saying, ‘Your son won’t be able to move around; he won’t even be able to eat; we won’t let him sleep,'” Vijayendra had claimed.
–IANS
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