Mangaluru police have arrested 15 people in connection with the mob lynching of an unidentified man, amid allegations that he was killed for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans.
Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal said during a press conference on Tuesday, April 29, that the city police have invoked section 103 (2) (murder on grounds of race, caste, community etc by a group of five people or more) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for the first time and have arrested 15 of more than 25 suspects they had identified.
The body of a labourer was found near Kudupu temple on the outskirts of Mangaluru on Sunday, April 27. Rumour was rife that the mob assaulted him because of his religion and that he had raised anti-India slogans.
Agrawal said that the body was found on the evening of April 27 and officers and forensic teams had been sent to the crime scene. Initially, a case of suspicious death had been registered because there weren’t too many visible injuries on the body, Agrawal said.
However, according to preliminary information from doctors who did the post-mortem, the man had several internal injuries especially on his back, buttocks and genitals.
To a question, Agrawal said that the man’s identity was still not known. “We’ve been told that he is a migrant labourer from West Bengal or Bihar, but some people said that he spoke Malayalam. He’s aged between 35 and 40 years and is most likely a Muslim,” Agrawal said.
He said that the investigators are working to establish his identity and identify the man’s attackers. So far, the police have identified more than 25 people and have arrested 15.
Agrawal said that according to preliminary information, the man had arrived at the spot around 3.30pm where a cricket match was underway. “He got into an argument with a man named Sachin who assaulted him. Sachin’s associates turned up and they too joined in the assault,” he said, adding that the case is being reinvestigated as murder.
He said that it was not yet known whether his religious identity had anything to do with the crime.
Home Minister G Parameshwara said an incident of mob lynching has been reported involving an unidentified individual. “I was informed that there are reports he was shouting ‘Pakistan zindabad’ during a local cricket match, which led some people to beat him. He didn’t die on the spot but passed away later. I’m yet to receive the full report. Around 10 to 12 people have been arrested, and further investigation is underway,” the minister said.
The minister said the government was taking the incident seriously. “It should not happen because Karnataka is a peaceful state. We don’t allow these things to happen. Even if he had raised slogans like Pakistan zindabad, they (the accused) should have informed the police,” he said.