BENGALURU: Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday afternoon held a closed-door meeting with the police top brass including officials from the Intelligence department. Sources said that the minister told them to mandatorily do a background check of speakers at anti-CAA/NRC/NPR events and also get all details from the organisers before granting permission.
The sources said the department, including the Intelligence officials, were reprimanded for not having prior information on who the guests were at AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owiasi’s recent event at Freedom Park where activist Amulya raised slogans hailing Pakistan.
“He has instructed all officers to ensure that such incidents do not occur,” the sources said. Such instances send a wrong message about the security in the state and should be controlled at any cost, the minister is believed to have told the officers.
The home minister also said that there are some people who are trying to influence the student community by visiting colleges and instigating them to speak against the NRC, NPR and CAA and also against the country, which needs to be curbed immediately.
Speakers’ online accounts may be screened
According to officials, he told them to track such organisations and also keep a list of organisers, attendees and also chief guests wherever anti-CAA events are held. Expressing unhappiness with City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, the minister reportedly asked, “How many policemen were deployed at Freedom Park on that day? Weren’t the organisers questioned on who the guests were? Why wasn’t the background of the people attending the event checked beforehand?” A senior officer who attended the meeting said social media accounts and previous speeches of public speakers might also be monitored by the police.