In a continued series of “moral policing” in the coastal belt, the Mangaluru North Police have arrested three persons on charges of intimidating a young couple from Kerala in Mangaluru on Thursday, December 21.
City Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal in a communique said on Saturday, December 23, that a young couple from Kerala was allegedly stopped by a person at Hampanakatte on Thursday afternoon. The person asked about the identity of the couple and demanded they show their identity cards to verify whether they belonged to different communities.
Alarmed by his action, the couple boarded an autorickshaw and asked the driver to take them to the Central Railway Station. The person tried to stop the autorickshaw too with his associates. The couple, who spoke Malayalam, finally reached the Railway Station. Based on the complaint by the autorickshaw driver, the North police have registered cases of wrongful restraint and breach of peace against the accused.
Police gave the name of the main accused as Sandesh, 28, resident of Bantwal and his associates as Prashanth, 31 and Ronith, 31.
It may be mentioned here that, Mangaluru South Police on November 28, 2023 arrested two youths on charges of waylaying, harassing and questioning a man and a woman belonging to different religions for travelling together on a motorbike in Mangaluru on November 27. Police gave the names of the arrested youths as Akshay Rao and Shibin Padikal.
With the latest incident on December 21, the coastal belt has reported 13 “moral policing” incidents with 12 cases being reported from from Dakshina Kannada and one from Udupi district.
Earlier, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada and Minister for Health and Family Welfare, had accused the right-wing groups of indulging in “moral policing” to tarnish the image of Dakshina Kannada.
