A Muslim police constable in Mangaluru has filed a complaint at the very police station where he works, alleging that he is a victim of misinformation and communal hatred. The complaint comes amid a spike in communal tensions in the polarised coastal city after two back-to-back murders.
A migrant worker named Ashraf was lynched by a mob on April 27. Three days later, on May 1, a rowdy-sheeter named Suhas Shetty was stabbed to death.
Days after Suhas’ murder, Hindutva leaders and social media posts began claiming that Rashid M Shaik, head constable at the Bajpe Police Station, was complicit in the murder.
In response, Rashid filed a complaint, and an FIR was registered under Sections 353 (1) and 353 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Both sections relate to spreading false information in electronic form to promote enmity between different groups.
Meanwhile, the city police have begun a departmental inquiry against Rashid to investigate the allegations and the constable himself is now on leave.
Read: Mangaluru mob lynching: Activists accuse police of inaction against man with BJP links
Sharan Pumpwell of the Vishwa Hindu Parishat and KT Ullas of the Hindu Jagarana Vedike claimed during a joint press conference on May 5 that Rashid had a hand in Suhas’ murder. They claimed Rashid had harassed Suhas, and that the Assistant Police Commissioner (ACP) had told Suhas not to carry “tools” (weapons) in his vehicle.
“How did the assailants know that he was unarmed? We suspect that Rashid might have informed the assailants,” Ullas alleged.
It is unclear whether these allegations first surfaced on social media or whether they were started by the Hindutva activists. The now suspended BJP rabble-rouser and Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal too has since shared a post repeating those claims.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece Organiser too published the allegations, claiming that Rashid “played a critical role in facilitating the murder”.
“(Hindu groups) claim that Rashid was keeping track of Suhas’s movements and eventually passed on this information to the assailants. If these allegations hold true, it suggests that Suhas was left defenseless and exposed, making it easier for his killers to target him,” Organiser said.
BJP leaders and Hindutva activists have criticised the media for calling Suhas a “rowdy-sheeter”, despite the fact that Commissioner Agrawal himself released information about Suhas being on the city police’s rowdy-sheet.
Section 1059 (5) of the Karnataka Police Manual gives the police power to maintain a Register of Rowdies at every police station. A rowdy is defined as a person who is dangerous to public peace and tranquility.
BJP leaders also questioned why no one from the government had met Suhas’ family.
In response, Home Minister G Parameshwara had told the media that no one from the government had met Suhas’ family as he was a rowdy-sheeter. However, he maintained that the police would catch his killers and ensure justice.
With the ‘rowdy-sheeter vs Hindu activist’ noise refusing to die down, district in-charge minister Dinesh Gundu Rao posted images of the rowdy-sheet opened by the police, pointing out that it had been done by the previous BJP government.
According to documents accessed by TNM, the Bajpe police opened a rowdy-sheet against Suhas on June 18, 2020, when Basavaraj Bommai was Chief Minister. It listed five cases against Suhas between 2016 and 2022, including two of murder. Suhas and others have been accused of murdering Keerthi Poojary and injuring two others in an attack in 2020. Suhas is also accused in the murder of Fazil, who was killed in July 2022, allegedly as ‘revenge’ for the murder of Praveen Nettaru, a BJP Yuva Morcha leader.
The other three cases relate to assault, criminal intimidation, and public mischief. He was convicted of affray (fighting in a public place) in November 2016 in a case filed in the Belthangady Police Station.
“This being the case, we have learned from intelligence reports that he has put together an organisation of Hindu youth and has a tendency to incite assault, riots, murder attempts, dacoity, threats against Hindu-Muslim youths without provocation. Muslim organisations are strong in Bajpe police station limits and there is a possibility that things could take on a Hindu-Muslim turn and lead to communal clashes,” the file on Suhas says.
Rashid filed a complaint at the very police station he works in, on the day that Sharan Pumpwell and KT Ullas made the allegations against him. The FIR names Samithraj Dharegudde of Moodabidri for sharing the allegations against him as his WhatsApp status, and Ullas for the allegations made during the press conference.
In his complaint, Rashid said “false and baseless allegations” had been made on social media and during the press conference it had been alleged that “the Bajpe police had a hand in Suhas Shetty’s murder”. These had caused “social unrest” and “spread hatred between communities”, he said in his complaint.
The FIR has been registered under sections 353 (1) (false statements made through electronic media and which can incite hatred between two communities) and 353 (2) (false statements that can promote enmity between groups on grounds of religion etc).
A senior IPS officer in the city who declined to be named told TNM that Rashid “is on leave” and the allegations against him were being investigated by an ACP.
Asked if Rashid was made to go on leave while the investigation progressed, the officer repeated, “He is on leave.”