Mangaluru, Jul 15: The prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPc clamped in Dakshina Kannada district entered 50 days on Saturday. Currently the Section is in place in Bantwal, Sullia, Puttur and Belthangady taluks.
Following stabbing of a youth from minority community by saffron activists on May 27, the Dakshina Kannada district administration first imposed prohibitory orders in Bantwal. Few days later it was extended to other taluks and in Mangaluru City Commissionerate limits during Ramadan festival.
Despite prohibitory orders in place, several untoward incidents including two murders and several incidents of assaults took place in Bantwal. Members of Sangh Parivar violated the order and held at a protest at Bantwal town. Hundreds of right-wing activists including MPs Shobha Karandlaje and Nalin Kumar Kateel, MLC Ganesh Karnik, MLA Sunil Kumar and RSS leader Kalladaka Bhat have been booked for organising the protest on July 7. Stone throwing was reported during the funeral procession of slain RSS worker Sharath on July 8.
Section 144 of CrPC prohibits any assembly of five or more people in an area. Every member of such unlawful assembly can be booked for engaging in rioting, maximum punishment for which is three years.
Section 144 is clamped not because there is tension in the region, but as a preventive measure, said minister for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs U T Khader. "The district administration has clamped prohibitory orders only to see that no more clashes are reported. It is just to prevent those miscreants from creating more trouble. Now people are living peacefully, but the Section 144 is continuing only as a warning for miscreants. This is also to prevent processions and speeches that lead to tension. Prohibitory orders will be withdrawn soon," Khader told reporters on Saturday.
It seems that no police officer is willing to serve in communally-sensitive Bantwal taluk. For, two circle inspectors, who were transferred to Bantwal, refused to report to duty citing they they cannot work in Bantwal circle due to political interference in their work and communal violence. This forced the state government to depute a senior police official M S Prakash, who was serving in Anti-Naxal Force at Karkala. He assumed charge on Friday.
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