Mangaluru: The government’s failure to take action against those orchestrating the communal tension in the region is encouraging them to indulge in more such violence, claims president of the state unit of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), Muneer Katipalla.
“We have often seen in the past that the real culprit is not arrested for communal attacks. The police would ask the Hindu outfit leaders to surrender the accused if a Muslim was murdered and if a Hindu was killed, they would ask the Muslim outfit leaders to bring the accused to them. While at times the real accused would surrender, at other times volunteers would give themselves up and later be released by the police. There have even been cases of the police booking those not responsible at all for these crimes,” he alleged.
Speaking to DC, he contended that while such false arrests had decreased in the last two or three years, they were quite frequent in the past and only a special investigation team could get to the real masterminds behind the communal violence.
“The CM must set up a special investigation team to probe all communal hate killings since 2010. As most of those involved in such communal incidents are either unemployed or poor, the team should investigate those who help them come out of prison and come to their aid while they are behind bars too,” he said.
Komu Sauhardha Vedike district president Suresh Bhat agrees that those responsible for communal trouble on the coast are not punished. “Right from Mahatma Gandhi’s murder to communal incidents in Dakshina Kannada, we have seen that those who are actually behind the crimes are not arrested. If a Muslim is killed by an organisation or Hindutva outfit no action is taken against the person or the team that plotted the murder. Those arrested are mere pawns.
The brains behind the crime are safe and plan the next attack with new pawns. Only if the government takes action to bring them to justice will such crimes decrease,” he said.
