Mangaluru (Karnataka), May 2 At least three stabbing incidents were reported on Friday in the communally sensitive Mangaluru region following the murder of Hindu activist Suhas Shetty by a gang on May 1. The developments have raised concerns, as they occurred despite heavy police presence in the district.
According to police sources, the incidents were reported from the Kannur, Konchadi, and Ullal areas near Mangaluru city. Faisal from Ullal, Mohammad Lukman from Konchadi, and Irshad from Kannur were stabbed and are currently undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Police state that the stabbings took place late Thursday night and early Friday morning as acts of retaliation for the murder of Suhas Shetty.
In a separate incident, Udupi Police arrested two individuals for attempting to assault Aboobkar, an auto driver, late Thursday night. The accused have been identified as Sushanth and Sandesh Poojari. They allegedly tried to attack Aboobkar with a sword and glass bottles. However, Aboobkar managed to escape and filed a complaint at the Hiriyadka police station in Udupi.
During interrogation, the accused reportedly confessed that they attempted the assault to avenge Suhas Shetty’s death. Hiriyadka police have continued their investigation into the matter.
In another development, the police are also investigating a social media post that went viral following the murder of Suhas Shetty. The post, shared by the Instagram account ‘Troll_mayadiaka’, appeared to celebrate the murder and included the message, “Wait for the next wicket.” Police sources stated that prior to the murder on March 31, another Instagram account named ‘Target Killer-03’ had posted a photo of Suhas Shetty, claiming that revenge would be taken against him.
Meanwhile, BJP MP from Mangaluru Lok Sabha constituency, Captain Brijesh Chowta, has appealed to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to hand over the investigation into Suhas Shetty's murder to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Suhas Shetty, a Bajrang Dal activist, was the prime accused in the murder of Mohammad Fazil, a Suratkal resident who was killed in broad daylight on July 28, 2022. That murder was allegedly in retaliation for the killing of BJP activist Praveen Kumar Nettaru.
Nettaru was hacked to death during the height of the hijab row in Bellare near Sullia, Dakshina Kannada district -- a murder that had triggered a spate of revenge killings and stabbings across the state.
Shetty had recently been released on bail in the Fazil murder case.
Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara on Friday condemned the murder of Hindu activist Suhas Shetty in Mangaluru, assuring that the perpetrators would not be spared, urging residents to maintain peace.
“We will not spare the killers,” Parameshwara told reporters in Bengaluru.
“I appeal to the people of Mangaluru to stay calm. The government stands with you, and the police are fully committed to maintaining law and order,” he said.
BJP MLC and Opposition Chief Whip in the Legislative Council N. Ravikumar raised a serious question, stating, “A major dilemma has arisen over whether there is any police system functioning in Karnataka.”
Speaking to the media on Friday at the BJP state headquarters ‘Jagannath Bhavan’, in Bengaluru, he referred to the murder of Suhas Shetty in Mangaluru and criticised the government, saying, “Karnataka has turned into a jungle raj of sorts.”
He questioned what the state’s Home Minister, Chief Minister, and Deputy Chief Minister were doing.
He alleged that law and order in the state has collapsed. “If people are being run over by lorries and hacked to death with machetes and sickles, then what is the use of having a police department at all?” he asked.
Ravikumar said the current situation poses a major challenge to the state police, the Home Minister, the Chief Minister, and the Deputy Chief Minister.
He further recalled the cooker bomb blast that had occurred earlier in Mangaluru. “At that time, Dy CM D.K. Shivakumar had called the accused ‘my brothers’. Is this kind of ‘my brothers’ policy becoming a curse for Karnataka?” Ravikumar questioned.
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