One student and 31 Sri Ram Sene activists were taken into custody on Tuesday for protesting in front of a city college over its policy preventing Aiyappa devotees from entering the campus if sporting a beard and the black shawl.
The protest in front of the Canara Pre-University College, in its second day, was held without permission from the police, prompting the department to take Rakshith Kumar Rao, a I PU student, and the activists backing him into custody. Barke police said no case was filed against them. They were let off with a warning.
The Sene started the protests on Monday after Mr. Rao was penalised by college authorities for sporting the shawl and beard as part of the vow undertaken before the pilgrimage to Sabrimala temple.
The custody – though, police officials said it was only superficial with no information of those taken into custody being recorded – prompted a few students to gather at the police station asking for their release.
Meanwhile, Sri Ram Sene members said a protest would be held in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office asking for the administration to interfere in what they call “unfair, anti-Hindu” policies of the college. The college had maintained it could not exempt any student from its rules regarding uniforms.
The student applied for leave till he returns from the pilgrimage.
The college principal, Hundiprabha Kamath, had expressed her displeasure at Sri Ram Sene for “interfering” with the functioning of the college and for terming it “anti-Hindu”.
