Police Commissioner should be held accountable for delayed action in mob lynching, says Congress

District Congress president K. Harish Kumar speaking to presspersons in Mangaluru on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: Raghava M.

Dakshina Kannada district Congress committee president K. Harish Kumar said on Wednesday that Mangaluru Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal should be held accountable for delayed action against the accused in the Kudupu mob lynching case.

He also sought action against inspector of Mangaluru Rural police station as Mr. Kumar alleged that the police official gave false information on the cause of death of 35-year-old Ashraf of Kerala.

Addressing presspersons, Mr. Kumar alleged that inspector Shiva Kumar gave false information on the cause of death of Ashraf near the cricket ground in Kudupu on April 27. Senior police officials, including Mr. Agrawal, went by the inspector’s preliminary information. It was only after autopsy report, the mob lynching case was registered and the police announced the arrest of 20 persons related to the case on Tuesday.

“The district Congress has already written to the government seeking suspension of the inspector. Mr. Agrawal should also be held accountable for delayed action,” Mr. Kumar said.

The district Congress chief said police are yet to arrest a few more persons including those who instigated the group to lynch Ashraf. The BJP still continues to fuel communal discord in the region. Innocent people from backward communities fall prey to these instigations and get arrested as accused, he alleged.

District secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Muneeer Katipalla in a statement claimed that the local police got complete information about the incident on April 27 evening and the same was passed on to Mr. Agrawal. For strange reasons, the police delayed in registering a case of mob lynching. A thorough inquiry needs to be done to bring out reasons for registering “a weak case” initally, Mr. Katipalla said in a statement.

Y. Bharath Shetty, Mangaluru City North MLA, said in a statement that Hindu activists have been arrested in false case foisted on them by the police under political pressure. Dr. Shetty alleged that under the guise of questioning, activists were called to the police station and forced to admit their involvement in mob lynching. If the police did not stop acting under the diktats of the government and victimising Hindu activists, there will be protests outside the police stations, he threatened.