The Mangaluru police have released 72 of the 98 activists who were arrested on Tuesday in connection with laying siege to the Police Commissioner’s office. However, the remaining 26, who allegedly attacked women police personnel as well, including Assistant Commissioner of Police (South) Shruthi, have been remanded in judicial custody, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Traffic) Sanjeev M. Patil said.
The police are issuing notices to the 72 released activists asking them to furnish bonds for good conduct, the DCP added.
Around 500 People’s Front of India (PFI) activists, protesting alleged police atrocity on Ahmed Qureshi, an attempt to murder accused, tried to lay siege to the Police Commissioner’s office on Tuesday. When they did not heed to police direction to disperse and began pelting stones, the police resorted to lathi-charge. In the melee, 12 policemen and five activists were injured.
PFI and Social Democratic Party of India leaders have alleged that Qureshi was subjected to police torture and this had led to renal failure. The police, however, claimed that Qureshi was immediately produced before a magistrate upon his arrest on March 28 and was remanded in judicial custody thereafter.
This incident comes on the heels of the attack on Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis in the adjoining district of Udupi and on Assistant Commissioner Shilpa Nag of Kundapur. The duo were attacked by people who were illegally extracting sand at Kandlur village near Kundapur in the early hours of Monday.
