Another moral policing case in Dakshina Kannada as journalist, woman friend abused in Mangaluru; 2 booked

According to the police, two men allegedly intercepted the journalist and his friend and abused them in front of a restaurant in Mangaluru city saying that “it is highly improper for a Muslim to man to roam around with a Hindu girl”.

Chetan Kumar and Naveen, both residents of Mangaluru, have been arrested for abusing a journalist and a female friend in Dakshina Kannada. (Express photo)

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The police in Karnataka’s Mangaluru arrested two men in a suspected case of moral policing after they allegedly verbally abused a journalist and his woman friend on July 29 while they were leaving a restaurant. The incident was reported only two days after a police constable was allegedly assaulted while he was walking with his wife in Dakshina Kannada district, officials said.

According to the police, the arrested men have been identified as Chetan Kumar, 38, a mason, and Naveen, 39, both residents of Mangaluru in the Dakshina Kannada district. They have been booked under Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and were later released on bail, they added.

The police said the two men intercepted Abhijith N Kolpe, a journalist with a local news portal, and his friend and abused them in front of the restaurant around 3 pm on July 29. They told Kolpe, “It is highly improper for a Muslim to man to roam around with a Hindu girl”. Kolpe identified himself as a journalist, but the men continued to abuse them and then fled the scene.

Mangaluru is the first police commissionerate in Karnataka to establish an anti-communal wing to combat moral policing and handle cases related to communal violence.

This is not the first case of moral policing in the Dakshina Kannada district.

On July 27 two men were arrested after they assaulted a police constable and abused his wife as they were walking towards their home on BC Road township in Dakshina Kannada district.

According to the police, the men assumed Constable Hanumantappa Kumar to be a Muslim and questioned him for “walking with a Hindu woman at around 10 pm” even though Kumar tried to convince them that the woman was his wife and they were both Hindus.

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The police arrested the suspects who have been remanded in judicial custody. Kumar is deployed to assist the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the coastal region.

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