Just a few days for 2022 to get over, and so far, Dakshina Kannada district has witnessed an increase in the number of communal incidents especially those of ‘moral policing’. The district had reported at least six such incidents in the past two months alone, in which police had registered cases.
Several incidents reported
A 27-year-old Muslim youth was dragged out of a private bus at Naguri in the city on October 21 and beaten up for travelling with a Hindu woman. Later on November 24, a Muslim college student was forced to alight from a private bus and assaulted at Nanthoor in the city for travelling with a Hindu girl. It was followed by an assault on a Muslim employee for being close with a fellow Hindu colleague at a jewellery shop in Kankanady on December 6.
The next day, a Muslim youth was assaulted for accompanying a girl from his own community to a theatre to watch ‘Kantara’ movie in Sullia. Further, two young Muslim fishermen were assaulted for moving with two Hindu girls in Kottara Chowki in the city on December 10. Later on December 15, four activists stopped a Bengaluru bound private bus in Mani, near Kalladkka, after learning about a Hindu girl travelling with a Muslim boy and created a ruckus. Police registered a suo moto case in Mani incident.
“These are the acts of fundamentalist forces to create wedge among communities. It is being encashed by political parties,” said Suhail Kandak, the former State General Secretary of the Indian National Youth Congress.
Police sources say that activists of Hindutva forces were behind majority of the attacks while a few fringe Muslim activists were involved in the attack reported in Sullia.
Further, Bajarang Dal Dakshina Kannada district convenor Puneet Attavar while speaking to media persons recently, after submitting a memorandum to police, said that its activists will take on Muslim youth if they are found with Hindu girls during the New Year parties.
On the other hand, judiciary has also pointed out on the lack of seriousness in the investigation of moral policing cases. A case in point is the acquittal, by the Second Judicial Magistrate First Class Court, Mangaluru in March 2018, of all the 26 accused in the infamous 2009 pub attack case in which young party goers were assaulted by Srirama Sene activists.
Political inclination
Turning down an appeal by the State on November 11, 2021, the Sixth Additional District and Sessions Court Judge K.M. Radhakrishna said that investigation officer derailed the investigation by ignoring vital evidence that is by not making victim boys and girls as witnesses. The officer failed to produce videos of the incident, which was telecast by media houses. “In other words, it can be said that it is an indirect attempt made by the investigation officer to protect the real culprits on the guise of the investigation,” the Judge observed.
Activist Vidya Dinker said it was strange Karnataka government has so far not taken any action against the officer concerned. “Home Department should conduct a detailed inquiry and the officer concerned should face consequences for lapses in the investigation, which has derailed the case.” The judgement also serves a lesson for civil society members who have to ensure proper investigation of ‘moral policing’ incidents that will lead to punishment of accused.
K. Phaniraj, a retired academician and an activist, said that passive support of the government to perpetrators of moral policing has increased now. The repeated incidents only prove that the Hindutva forces are trying to reinforce their supremacy. The incidents are not linked to any elections, he said
