The Mangaluru City Police have booked two separate cases against the organisers of SCDCC Bank president M.N. Rajendra Kumar’s Rajatha Sambhrama and 20-Years of Navodaya SHGs programme held here on Saturday, for throwing life out of gear in Mangaluru.
While the Mangaluru East police took up a suo motu case against the organisers, based on a complaint from Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M. Manjunatha Shetty on Tuesday, the Mangaluru South police had taken up a case on the complaint from officials of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) concerned on Monday.
Both the complaints in common accused the organisers of disobeying the order duly promulgated by public servants (Section 188 of Indian Penal Code), unauthorised parking (Section 283), and causing public nuisance (Section 290).
MCC’s complaint accused the organisers of unauthorised display of flex banners, advertisements, and leaving trash all across the city under Section 3 of the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, 1981.
The ACP’s complaint also charged the organisers of wrongfully restraining the public, including women, elderly and children of the city. The organisers brought in people in excess of what was allowed; did not park buses at designated places; held a mega procession inconveniencing the public, and troubled office-goers, schoolchildren and other residents, the officer said.
Police Commissioner T.R. Suresh told The Hindu that the police would act in right earnest as the offences alleged are serious in nature.
The police said the organisers were clearly told to park all buses bringing participants for the event at the Gold Finch Grounds in Kottara after dropping them off at Nehru Maidan. The organisers were directed to arrange shuttle buses to ferry participants from Nehru Maidan to Gold Finch after the programme was over. However, such arrangements were not made and buses were parked haphazardly across the city, throwing traffic out of gear.
