BENGALURU: Two cases have been registered against a few students for displaying placards and banners that were defamatory in nature during a Citizenship Amendment Act protest held at Government Arts College, Nrupathanga Road, on Friday evening. The placards were allegedly provocative and hurt the sentiments of people of a particular religion. The police have cited this reason to take up a case against the students, while another case has been filed by the principal of the college for trespassing.
Students from other colleges had also joined the protest, and close to a 1,000 students, lawyers and members from some organisations had turned up. Chetan Singh Rathore, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), said, “Halasurgate police deployed at the premises found that the banners were hurtful towards a particular religion. After gathering evidence, Mallikarjun, sub-inspector, filed a complaint with Halasurgate station. The second complaint is filed by the principal, as there was no permission granted.”
Despite Section 144 being imposed, around 25-30 people gathered in front of the college, Later, they started protesting inside the college too.“We have learnt that the protesters were students from various colleges, including Christ University, Mount Carmel College, BMS Law College, Vishveshwaraiah Institute of Technology, Central College and NMKRV college. Two FIRs have been registered against eight students. Preliminary information has identified these students as Teressa, Adria, Henry, Sarovara, Chittavara, Amoolya, Amrutha and Rajgopal. We are not sure if the names are correct or not. However, if we find that they are not at fault, their names will be dropped,” Rathore said.
Halasurgate police have got in touch with the management of the respective colleges and sent them videos and photos of the students for identification reasons, he added.Meanwhile, Teresa, one of the organisers of the protest, said, “We wer protesting peacefully. Some people brought such banners, but we still take complete responsibility. We will fight these charges legally.”
The students have been charged under IPC Section 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting its religion), IPC Section 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), IPC Section 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), IPC Section 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), IPC Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and IPC Section 448 (trespassing).