UDUPI: Karkala Town police, who summoned a Congress party worker on Thursday for questioning, for allegedly posting demeaning content about Indian soldiers on Facebook, are now being blamed for assaulting him.Radhakrishna Nayak Hirgana, the Congress worker, was admitted to a private hospital in Manipal after the alleged assault. He said that despite appearing before Karkala Town police sub-inspector Madhu B E, and answering him during interrogation, he was brutally assaulted.
Radhakrishna was charged with posting derogatory content against Indian soldiers on his Facebook account about a year ago. However, the accused argued that he had shared his Facebook account password with others and someone else had posted the derogatory content. Based on a complaint, Karkala police summoned him for interrogation.
Congress leaders, including former minister Vinay Kumar Sorake, have warned that they will protest against the police brutality. Bipin Chandrapal Nakre, Udupi district Congress spokesperson, said that some miscreants had posted the derogatory comments by gaining access to Radhakrishna’s Facebook account.
“The Congress will protest against this assault,” he said, adding that he expects the Udupi SP to address the injustice meted out to Radhakrishna by S-I Madhu. The party will take a decision, based on the SP’s step, Nakre said.
Sources said that Radhakrishna was working in Bengaluru, and had recently shifted to his native town. He is a cardiac patient, and the alleged assault on him by police has affected his health. Denying that Radhakrishna was assaulted, S-I Madhu said that despite summoning him several times for the past one year, he did not cooperate with them.
He came to the police station on Thursday, and tried to create a ruckus, Madhu said. “He was not assaulted, and though we asked him to cooperate with the investigation, he did not comply,” the S-I said.
Meanwhile, Udupi SP Vishnuvardhan told The New Indian Express that he had ordered Kundapur DySP Srikanth to probe the incident.