BENGALURU: Furious over a mob assaulting officials and workers of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) engaged in removing unauthorised flexes/banners/buntings following court’s directions to put the city back on track, the Karnataka High Court on Friday swung into action at lightning speed.
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice R Devdas said while thumping the table: “They (BBMP) could have informed and taken the support of police, and the police should have put up a task force. Such a situation (incident) sounds obnoxious and eats at the root of our system. Any single officer touched by anybody is like challenge to this court or law... Any hooliganism has no place in Bengaluru. The police should be vigilant and only thing that should prevail is the law.”
This clear message was given to the City Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar — who was present in the court — by the division bench, after taking note of the Thursday incident of assault extensively reported in the media.
“Nobody should take government officials for granted and misuse the system. The police should investigate this case thoroughly and book the conspirators/instigators”, the court said.
“The incident is an insult to the institution. The police commissioner will be held responsible if any such incident is repeated or a single flex erected after the removal of existing flex/banners/bunting. The Commissioner himself should monitor the case and submit the affidavit explaining the steps taken or to be taken to give proper protection to the officials and workers involving in the removal process,” the court said.
“We would definitely expect the result of the investigation to be presented to the Magistrate concerned at the earliest and in any case, on or before August 7, 2018, as assured by Advocate General,” the court said.
Before this, Advocate General Uday Holla submitted that the matter has been taken up with all seriousness by the administration and all steps are being taken to carry out appropriate investigation into the matter and to submit the result of the investigation at the earliest. He also submitted that the FIR was registered and four persons have been arrested.
Four held for assault on BBMP workers
Ramamurthynagar police on Friday arrested four men who assaulted BBBMP officials while removing flex boards near Tin Factory on Thursday. The arrested have been identified as Rajendran (32), Kamalnath (37), Surya(26) and Shimshan (23), residents of Udayanagar. Two others are still at large. A police officer said the accused are contractors and they have been fixing illegal flex boards in the locality for several years. The accused belonged to a gang in the area and had also threatened the locals over tying hoardings on a flyover near Tin Factory two weeks ago. The locals had asked them not to tie hoardings on the flyover as it could also fall on bikers below under heavy winds. But the accused allegedly ignored these warnings. "The accused will be handed over to judicial custody once interrogation is done," the officer said.
More than 18,000 kg of flex material seized on Friday
On day three of its war against flexboards, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities cracked down on shops that manufacture flex boards or take printing order for the same. A total of 18,820 kilos of flex material was seized from all eight zones. In the first two days, BBMP authorities had removed close to 20,000 kilos of flex, banners and boards across the city. There were few more which they cleared on Friday. The new flex material which was seized on Friday includes some carrying birthday wishes.
