MPs among hundreds detained to avert BJP’s Mangaluru Chalo

Mangaluru/Bengaluru, Sept 5: Hundreds of hardline Hindutva leaders including members were detained on Tuesday to abort illegal “Mangaluru Chalo” minutes after it was flagged off in Bengaluru. The rally was supposed to reach Mangaluru on September 7 through the authorities had denied permission.

High drama ensued as over 200 bike riders who successfully reached Freedom Park in Bengaluru, despite severe nakabandi on all roads leading to it, went ahead with the bike rally. The police dragged out the activists and seized the bikes. Over 500 activists including former Home Minister R. Ashoka, Shobha Karandlaje and Mysuru MP and BJP Yuva morcha president Pratap Simha were taken into preventive custody by the police.

There was tension as Mr. Ashoka and Mr. Simha staged a last minute rasta roko, blocking traffic on the busy Sheshadri Road causing traffic pile up, protesting arrests by the police. The leaders argued that the police had no powers to arrest them as there was no prohibitory orders in force in the area. The two leaders had to be physically dragged out and detained.

Earlier in the day, city police had put up a strict vigil around the city detaining BJP activists coming on bikes. City police commissioner T. Suneel Kumar had on Monday night imposed a ban on any bike rally in the city under section 35(3) of CrPC. Police detained hundreds of BJP workers and seized their bikes at Town Hall, Minerva Circle, Silk Board,