MANGALURU: The attack on an insurance agent in a mall over communal remarks took a new turn on Thursday with BJP state president and Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel giving a new twist to it. Referring to the incident, Kateel tweeted that the BJP government would not tolerate an assault of those questioning eve-teasing.
Kateel’s remark came as a big surprise and showed signs of the incident snowballing into yet another controversy in in the communally sensitive coastal Karnataka.
On Wednesday, the police had attributed the assault to an argument over Hindu Rashtra. Asked about Kateel’s tweet on Thurday, the police commissioner said, “The investigation does not corroborate such a version.”
The police, who had arrested three people, including a minor boy, soon after the incident that took place at Forum Fiza Mall on Wednesday, arrested two more late at night on the same day. All five accused are students. Asked whether any action would be taken against Manjunath, who was found making communal remarks in a video that went viral, the police commissioner said they will look into it.
Commenting on the incident, Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath condemned the incident and said that anyone who disrupts peace in the region will not be spared. Security was beefed up at the mall on Thursday.
CFI demands arrest of man who instigated students
Campus Front of India has demanded the arrest of a man who allegedly instigated a group of students with communal remarks. In a press release, CFI’s Dakshina Kannada district president Mohammed Sadiq accused the police of being biased with regard to the case by only arresting the students and not the man who provoked them with communal statements. He said that there has been a rise in ‘anti-constitutional’ statement of calling India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ by Sangh Parivar members.
“The man from Bantwal has instigated the students who were discussing nationalism at the mall. The police should arrest the man for instigating students and also for making anti-national remark of ‘Hindu Rashtra’,” he added.