The city police have arrested seven persons in connection with the attacks on two staffers of Kannada newspaper Karavali Ale .
The Mulky police have arrested Santosh, Ashwat, Krishna Shetty and Bharat Raj for their alleged involvement in the attack on Karavali Ale ’s circulation executive Puneet Raj on Sunday. The police said they were yet to find out as to which organisation the accused were working for. “The investigations are on. There are possibilities of involvement of other persons,” a police officer said. The Surathkal police have so far arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in the attack on Karavali Ale’s senior staffer Harish Putran on February 6. In this case also, the police said they were yet to find out for which organisation the accused worked.
The attacks against Karavali Ale started after reports linking Vedike leader Satyajit Surathkal with Keshav, who has been arrested for supply of narcotics in the city, were carried in the newspaper. Apart from attacking two staffers of the newspapers, the Vedike activists allegedly threatened newspaper stall owners to not sell Karavali Ale. The sale of the newspaper had been disrupted and it came to naught on Monday.
A police official on Monday called Mr. Surathakal and other vedike activists to his office and warned of action if they continued with the attacks and disruption of sale.
B.V. Seetaram, Chairman and MD of Chitra Publications, said there was no disruption in sale on Tuesday.
