Prasad Attavar, former district president of Sri Rama Sene and an accused in the pub attack case of 2009, has been arrested for allegedly posting on his Facebook page a message threatening writer K.S. Bhagwan.
The arrest follows a suo motu case registered by the Mangaluru North police on Thursday. According to the police, Attavar posted on his Facebook account a message, saying that those mocking Hinduism would die like M.M. Kalburgi.
The Central Crime Branch police arrested Attavar under Sections 153 (a) (Promoting enmity between classes) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
He was produced before the Second Judicial Magistrate First Class, who remanded him in judicial custody.
The Mangaluru City police invoked Section 153 (a), a non-bailable section, against Attavar. The Bantwal police had invoked a bailable provision against Bhuvith Shetty, a Bajrang Dal activist, who reportedly made similar comments on his Twitter account.
The Bantwal police on August 31 arrested Shetty for allegedly posting on his Twitter account a warning that those mocking Hinduism would die like U.R. Ananthamurthy and Kalburgi. He had reportedly mentioned that writer K.S. Bhagwan would be the next target. The Bantwal police invoked Sections 153 and 506 and produced Mr. Shetty before the local magistrate, who granted him bail the same day. This led to criticism of the action of the police.
Non-bailablesection According to a senior police official they had a consultation with legal experts and those from the Department of Prosecution following the arrest of Attavar. This led to invoking of the non-bailable section.
Prasad Attavar has denied making any such comment on his Facebook account. He told reporters that the Facebook account “Jai Bajarangi” in which the comments are seen, was a fake one. “When I do not know who is Kalburgi, there is no question of making any such comment,” he said.
“ When I do not know who is Kalburgi, there is no question of making any such comment. ”
Attavar, who runs a private security agency, was with the Bajrang Dal for nearly eight years. Following the attack at the busy Pumpwell junction in June 2005 on employees of a saree shop belonging to different communities, who were going on a trip, there was a division in the Bajrang Dal leading to the formation of Sri Rama Sene of which Attavar became district president.
It was during his time as district president that Sri Rama Sene activists assaulted men and women at a pub near Jyothi Circle on January 24, 2009. Mr. Attavar was arrested and he was named the 25th accused in the pub attack case.
