MANGALURU: Karnataka chief minister CM B S Yediyurappa who had announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the kin of the two victims of police firing in Mangaluru on December 22, backtracked on his assurance on Wednesday. This came after the police released videos on Monday night which suggested that the protesters had indulged in vandalism.
CM Yediyurappa who had initially disapproved of the police action during his review meeting in Mangaluru recently, on Wednesday told reporters who met him in the city that if the duo who died during the police firing were found to have committed acts of vandalism, the compensation cannot be paid to their kin. ''It will be a crime to compensate people who vandalize public properties,'' the CM added.
The CM said the investigation into the deaths of Jaleel (49) and Nausheen (23) who died during police firing is still going on. "Their involvement in acts of vandalism during the protest is also suspected by the police. So the compensation cannot be paid until the investigation is completed," he said.
The Mangaluru police had named the deceased duo as accused in the First Information Report (FIR) filed in the case.
The FIR, filed at Mangaluru North police station on December 19, said that all the 29 accused, along with 1,500-2,000 youths, staged a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act last Thursday, defying prohibitory orders. They were armed with stones, clubs, glass bottles and other weapons. They even tried to torch the Mangaluru North police station and conspired to kill the policemen, it said.
As per the FIR, the accused ignored warnings issued on megaphones to disperse and continued to throw stones at the police station, causing injuries to police officials and staff. In order to curb the riot and ward off threat to human lives and damage to properties, the police opened fire in the air in which two persons were injured and later died in a hospital. Five others also sustained injuries in the incident, it added.