NIA court sends 21 PFI activists to jail for holding arms training camp

Mangaluru, Feb 21: Police officials including the Mangaluru city Commissioner of Police P S Harsha would be summoned to appear before the panel conducting a magisterial probe into December 19, 2019 firing on anti-CAA protesters in the city which left two people dead.

Notices would be served on 176 police officers and staff to appear for hearing, Udupi deputy commissioner G Jagadeesha, conducting the magisterial probe into the incident said here on Thursday.

He told reporters that officials, including the city police commissioner Harsha, would be summoned to depose on the violence which led to police firing that killed two people.

Mangaluru (North) Assistant Commissioner K U Belliappa, who is the nodal officer for the police department, has given a list of 176 policemen who are ready to adduce evidence in the hearing.

The police officers would be summoned in phases.

The next hearing is on February 25.

He said so far, 203 members of the public have deposed before him on the incident.

Former city Mayor K Ashraf, who is under treatment in hospital, has also provided a written statement.

The remaining members of the public can provide evidence during next hearings, he said.

On December 19, two people were killed in police firing as protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) turned violent here.

The protesters had attempted to besiege the Mangaluru north police station and tried to attack police personnel, following which force was used to disperse them, police had said.

Two people received bullet injuries in the firing and they later succumbed at a hospital, the police had said.

Bengaluru, Jun 26: Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Thursday suggested that the cost of building and installing a new statue of Nada Prabhu Kempegowda in the Bengaluru airport should be borne by Kempegowda international airport (KIAL).

Shivakumar wrote to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and welcomed the decision of erecting a statute of Bengaluru founder Kempegowda at KIAL but he also suggested that the chief minister should not spend state government's money on this.

He said that the Karnataka government has done many favours to airport authority earlier.

Kannur, Jan 23: A member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been arrested for attempting to create unrest in Kerala by hurling crude bombs at RSS office and police picket. The miscreants had reportedly planned to pass the blame on others.

The bomb attack took place of January 16 in Kerala’s Kannur. The accused Prabesh, an RSS hardliner, was arrested from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

According to the Kerala police Prabesh hurled steel bombs towards the police picket in front of Kathirur Manoj Smrithi Kendram, an RSS office.

"He threw bombs during the wee hours of January 16 morning. Following the arrest he has confessed that his aim was RSS office. Kannur, being politically sensitive region, any attack on political party offices will be regarded as an act by the opponent," Kathirur SI Nijeesh said.

"We had a police picket in the region for a few months now. We are assuming he wanted to create unrest in the area by removing the police from the spot. We could contain the situation because of the CCTV visuals. He was identified immediately after the incident. Following the attack he went to Coimbatore and was hiding there. Our team nabbed him from Coimbatore," he said.

The police have also said that the accused Prabesh had many criminal cases pending against him including those under Explosive Substances Act, 1883. He was nabbed by a team lead by Kathirur SI Nijeesh, CPO Rohith and Vijeesh.

The RSS office in the region is named after Kathirur Manoj a senior karyakarta (worker) who was allegedly killed by the CPI(M) activists in 2014. Kathirur Manoj was the prime accused in the attempt to murder of senior CPI(M) leader P Jayarajan in 1999.