The Kalaburagi police on Saturday resorted to a lathi-charge to disperse jewellery shop owners who gathered at a showroom in Saraf Bazar locality after police arrested the shop owner or allegedly purchasing stolen gold articles from an unidentified person.
According to sources, the police had come to detain the owner claiming that he had purchased the stolen gold ornaments. The owner, Mallikarjun Kamaradagi, along with three merchants locked the police inside the shop when they demanded gold from the owners without producing the accused. A team of police officials lead by Deputy Superintendent of Police Jahnavi rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control.
Jewellery merchants downed shutters, gathered at the complex and started raising slogans opposing the arrest. In presence of senior officials, Circle Inspector Shantinath attached to the traffic police station intervened and asked the shop owners to cooperate with the police. Then police personnel started thrashing the crowd. Four persons including Mallikarjun Kamaradagi, Ashok, Manjunath and Ramesh were arrested. Additional Superintendent of Police Jayaprakash visited the spot later.
The jewellers took out a protest rally from Saraf Bazar to the office of Superintendent of Police condemning the arrest of merchants and action against Mr. Shantinath and other police officials for making the lathi-charge.
A merchant alleged that around five jewellery shops were raided in the last one month for alleged buying stolen gold ornaments from unidentified persons.
The jewellery shops remained closed till evening. Police personnel had been deployed in the Saraf Bazar locality to prevent untoward incidents. Traffic was disrupted for more than two hours in Saraf Bazar and surrounding areas.
