A video of six alleged members of the Hindu Maha Sabha threatening the BJP had gone viral. The video shows them ‘warning’ the BJP that they will “not spare anyone” who goes against “culture and tradition of Hindus' ' and “they killed Gandhi” too. The threats were issued to the BJP government over the recent demolition of a temple in Mysuru. The Mangaluru police, on Saturday, have booked all six members seen in the video.
The six people in the video have been identified as Dharmendra, Prem Polali, Kamalaksha Padeel, Sudhakar Shetty, Praveen Shetty and Ullas who had alleged in the press conference that the ruling BJP “has backstabbed Hindus” by allowing the demolition of an ancient temple in Mysuru. The temple was demolished following orders from the Supreme Court on the demolition of illegal constructions.
“We have not spared Gandhi himself. How big a deal are you for us? If we can condemn the attack on Hindus and kill Gandhi, do you think we can’t think about it in your case?” one of the men, Dharmendra, says in the video.
After the video went viral, the Hindu Maha Sabha sought to distance itself from the controversy, saying that the people seen in the video had been expelled from the Mahasabha and were no longer members. The Karnataka president of the Hindu Maha Sabha, Lohith Kumar Suvarna said in the complaint that the six people had wrongly used the Hindu Mahasabha’s name, and that the two among the group, including the Karnataka state secretary Uvarda Dharmendra, had been expelled from the sabha.
Lohith added that one of the persons involved in the press conference, Rajesh Pavitran, had been named as an accused in a honey trapping case registered in Barke police station and had been involved in a death threat case in Mangaluru and Bengaluru. The complaint called for action against the six over their “attempt to create enmity between religions and instigate a clash in Mangaluru, which is already a sensitive area.”
Following his complaint, a senior police official told TNM that an FIR has been registered and cases have been registered against all the six people who had conducted the press conference under section 120(B) [Punishment of Criminal Conspiracy], 153(A) [Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc], 505 (2) [Statement Conducing to public mischief], 506 (Punishment of criminal Intimidation), 465 (Punishment for forgery), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 469 (Forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object).