Karnataka ,January 17:Bijapur Police did a commendable job by arresting six terror mongers, who had conspired to create communal tension in Sindagi, in Bijapur district of Karnataka. The accused stepped into the footprints of Abhinav Bharat, a terror module of Sanghi activists. Back in 2006 Abhinav Bharat had planted home-made bombs in Malegaon on a bike owned by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, now in jail. Thakur is an old time activist of Sangh’s students wing, ABVP. She had conspired to create communal tension and harm the minority community.
ATS Maharashtra, under slain Hemant Karkare traced Sadhvi’s terror group with the help of the remains of the bike found at the blasts site. In Bijapur also a two-wheeler wheeled the police to the doors of the culprits. The bike was seen parked at Tehsil Campus, in the wee hours of New Year’s Day, where a green flag resembling Pakistan’s national flag was hoisted by some miscreants to create communal tension in the area.
Within no times scores of activists of right wing outfits like Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Sri Ram Sene came out on the streets. They blocked the roads, burned rubber tyres and violently stoned police vehicles. Sri Ram Sene also gave a call of bandh for Jan. 2. The police resorted to cane-charge to quell a group and open the roads. Sindagi and adjoining areas were gripped in tension thanks to the diabolic plan hatched by Sanghi outfits.
Sindagi, a small town of some 20 thousands residents, woke up on Jan. 1 with the news of “Pakistani Flag” hoisting atop the Tehsil headquarters. Before officials could react, the right wing terror mongers started their game-plan of creating tension for furthering their communal agenda. These groups are infuriated of 4.5% quota for minorities, including Muslims, by Central Government and need conditions of communal tension to protest against the provision. It may be noted that VHP had announced to take to the streets to oppose the quota.
Though Karnataka is ruled by BJP, the saffron groups made a tactical mistake by clashing with the police. This is against the practice. Saffron outfits at such occasions used to invoke their links in police and civil administration to get their tacit support to the movement. In this case the police was scolded by an inexperienced group of youth attached to Sri Ram Sene.
The police force cannot be expected to tolerate such an action and swallow the humiliation. District Police acted fast, before political bosses could intervene, and detained six workers of Sri Ram Sene. Search for the seventh is on at the time of writing these lines. We have always maintained that our police are capable of apprehending criminals, but their hands are tied and they are made to follow “His Master’s Voice”. In fact, political class corrupts and communalises the police to buttress their own political agenda.
Superintendent of Police (SP) D C Rajappa of Bijapur told reporters on Jan. 4 that a special investigation team (SIT) led by Deputy SP Mutturaj was constituted immediately. The team started investigation professionally from the point of crime. No pre-cooked theories authored in the comforts of AC offices, no “leads” from so-called “Central Investigating Agencies”, as has been routine in terror related cases and in the cases in which saffron elements were real culprits.
While collecting clues on the spot of crime, the team got to know that a two-wheeler was seen parked in the premises between 3:30 and 4 am that night. Some vigilant citizen remembered the registration number. This information was further developed with the help of mobile phone signatures.
The police successfully traced down the persons who had used the two-wheeler on that day. During interrogation, they told that while returning from Bijapur, after celebrating the New Year’s eve, they saw two Sri Ram Sene youth activists Anilkumar Solankar and Arun Waghmore behind the fence of the Tehsildar’s office. They said that they noticed both bare-footed and frightened on having been spotted. They also told the SIT that they had warned the youth of police personnel being around and that they should go back home.
On the basis of this information, the SIT picked Anil Kumar at around 5 am on Jan. 4. Anil, once in the police custody, spilled the beans and revealed the names and roles of his co-activists of Sri Ram Sene youth wing. He confessed to have been involved in the crime. Following the information extracted from Anil, the police arrested Rakesh Sidaramaiah Math (19), Mallanagouda Vijaykumar Patil (18), Parashuram Ashok Waghmore (20), Rohit Eshwar Navi (18), Sunil Madiwalappa Agasar (18) and Anilkumar Sriram Solankar (18), all from Sindagi. The seventh accused, Arun Waghmore, is on the run, the police said.
Mr. D C Rajappa, SP Bijapur, while announcing the arrests, said that the accused belonged to a group of young college students affiliated to Sri Ram Sene. He also said the group had conspired to create communal trouble in order to expand support base of the Sene in the town and around.
Mr Rajappa revealed that the green flag resembling the national flag of Pakistan flag was tailored by the Sri Ram Sene activists at the home of one of the accused, Sunil Madiwalappa Agasar. All seven have been booked under various sections. By cracking the conspiracy within three days, the ATS has created an example of police efficiency. One wonders if it will be allowed to work without external interference.
Sri Ram Sene’s founder Pramod Muttalik was infuriated and blamed the police of “maligning” his organisation. He initially disowned the youth and said the arrested boys are not “members of his outfit”, however in the next breath gave them clean chit and contested police claims of arrested youth being involved in the crime.
Further developments will be interesting as the police may be under pressure to be lenient against the accused and instead implicate some innocent persons as was done in Hyderabad, Malegaon, Jaipur and many other places.
——————-Agencies———————–