DHARWAD: The Dharwad police on Sunday detained four people for allegedly vandalising a fruit cart belonging to a Muslim trader on the premises of Hanuman temple in Nuggikeri of Dharwad district on Saturday.
The vendor, Nabhisab Killedar, filed a complaint with the Dharwad Rural police, who checked the video footage to trace the culprits. The accused -- Mylarappa Guddappanavar, 27, Mahaling Aigali, 26, Chidananad Kalal, 25, and Kumar Kattimani, 26, all residents from Dharwad -- were picked up by the police late on Sunday night.
“The FIR has been filed against 10 people. After going through the video footage available on the internet about the incident, we had summoned a few people. We detained four people for questioning,” a senior police official said.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said in Hubballi that it is the responsibility of everyone to maintain communal harmony. “We all should live together in India. The organisations should oppose in a democratic way. It is not right to take law into their hands,” he added, referring to the fruit cart incident.
“The opposition parties are making baseless allegations that the government and CM Basavaraj Bommai are supporting a campaign to ban the Muslim community. It is the duty of the government to take action against fundamentalists and those involved in terrorist activities.
The government will not protect anyone who is involved in such activities,” he added. Writer Rajendra Chenni said, “This is a threat to the secular and plural culture which is the very soul of North Karnataka.” Another writer and progressive thinker Shankar Halagati said the police should look into the issue.