MANGALURU: Legislative Assembly Speaker UT Khader has urged Home Minister G Parameshwar to order an inquiry into the failure of previous Mangaluru city police commissioner Anupam Agrawal and Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police Yatish N to curb hate speech and inflammatory posts on social media.
This comes after the murder of rowdy-sheeter and Hindutwa activist Suhas Shetty.
Talking to reporters, Khader said he had asked these officers to take strict action against hate speech and inflammatory posts that had peaked in social media after Suhas' murder and added that they had expressed helplessness to do so, citing loopholes in the laws.
Comparing them with Sudheer Kumar Reddy and Dr Arun K, who replaced them, Khader said the strict actions initiated by the new set of officials has reduced the hate speech and inflammatory posts by over 90 per cent now.
Stating that all IPS officers clear the same exam and go through the same training, he asked them why the previous officials failed to curb the crime. There should be action against them following an inquiry by a top-ranking official, he said and also stressed the need for the home department to come out with a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for the police officers to deal with specific crimes.
Further, the Speaker appealed to the civil society, advocates, courts and media to 'disown' the accused in the recent three murders in DK in order to curb hate crime and murders in the region. “It's not just the responsibility of the government to stop them. The society should also shoulder the responsibility,” he said.
Asked whether he was right to give a call to 'disown' the accused even before they are proven guilty, he said all he meant was that society should not help them to easily get away with the crime.
Condemning the murder of Abdul Rahiman, Khader said he was hacked to death by those who had helped them. “He was asked to deliver sand and when he was on his way to do so, he even picked the mother of one of the accused and dropped her home. After delivering sand, when he asked for money, he was murdered.”
Asked why the police have still not revealed Rahiman's murder motive even weeks after the incident and despite rumours that the crime was a result of a 'personal matter' and not communal, he said the police should answer this question. Further, when asked whether he thinks that it was a communal murder, Khader said he doesn’t know.
To another query on whether he will also visit the family of Suhas Shetty, Khader said he will if invited. “During a similar incident in the past, some asked me not to visit their family. I visited Rahiman's family as I was invited,” he said.