Three persons have been arrested so far in connection with the death of a Bajrang Dal activist in Karnataka’s Shivamogga on Sunday night. The first accused to be arrested has been identified as Khasif, who was apprehended from Clarkpete in Shivamogga, while the two others were picked up from Bengaluru based on information provided by Khasif.
Police believe that five people had carried out the attack. The state government has ruled out the hijab controversy behind the murder, saying “it has happened for different reasons”. “The hijab issue has nothing to do with this incident and it has happened for different reasons. Shivamogga is a sensitive city. The incident has taken place on the main road and the police are on high alert,” state home minister Araga Jnanendra said.
The Bajrang Dal activist, identified as Harsha, was brutally killed near Ravivarma Street in Bharathi Colony. A tailor by profession, Harsha was killed as a result of prior rivalry, police suspect. He held the position of ‘Prakanda Sahakaryadarshi’ (coordinator) of Bajrang Dal in the district.
A special team of Shivamogga police had reached the city this morning and started coordinating with the local police to trace the accused. One assailant and the person who was driving the car are still at large. Harsha’s rivalry with others and a feud with a few Muslim youths from the area is the primary angle being probed, sources told News18.
Violence had ensued during Harsha’s funeral procession that left a photo-journalist and a woman cop among three injured in the morning. They were wounded when miscreants pelted them with stones during the funeral procession that took place amid tight security even as several vehicles were torched and damaged while there were reports of some shops being ransacked.
According to official sources, there was stone pelting when the body was being taken from District McGann Hospital in Shivamogga.
Meanwhile, the administration has declared that schools and colleges will be shut in Shivamogga tomorrow, while shops and commercial establishments remained shut in parts of the city today. Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, appealing for peace said that the government will get the murder investigated and punish the guilty at the earliest. A curfew has also been clamped in Shivamogga town till 6am on Wednesday, while the rest of the district will have prohibitory orders.
Home Minister Jnanendra said Harsha was a Hindu karyakarta and there is information that there were a couple of cases against him, and earlier too there was an attack on him. “They are all being looked into,” he said.
Karnataka Congress President D K Shivakumar said there is information that the murder might have been due to a personal issue. “There is such information, such reports are there in the media also, we don’t know. Guilty must be punished and justice should be given to the family of the deceased,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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