Mangaluru: A 55-year-old woman from Manejshwar never dreamt that she will be called to the police station for an investigation in connection with violence during the recent anti-CAA protests in the city, which led to two people getting killed in police firing, and injured a dozen others.
The Mangaluru city police, who are probing the violence during the protest on December 19, have started sending notices to people who were present in the vicinity, after obtaining their details through mobile towers, according to sources. Interestingly, most of the notices were sent to people residing in the border areas of Karnataka and Kerala, and are students, homemakers, government employees, businessmen and others.
They claim innocence, saying they frequent areas like Bunder and State Bank for business and other purposes, and were never involved in violence.
According to sources, the husband of the woman who was served a notice used to have a SIM card which was registered in her name. Her husband, aged about 60, is a fish seller, who used to come to Bunder to buy fish and later sell the same in Ullal and other places. On December 19, he had come to the fish dock between 6am to 8.30am.
“So far, as many as 650 people from border areas of Kerala have been served notices, and the process is on to send notices to 2,000 more people,” added a source.
“This is not a fair investigation, and police should not trouble innocent citizens. Most importantly, they must not target people from a particular area. A lot of people from Kerala come to Mangaluru for various works,” criticised DYFI state president Muneer Katipalla. He added that when he had gone to the police station along with a person, who was served a police notice, he learnt that a lot of students, government employees, bank employees, women and others were queued up. “Police earlier suspected the role of people from Kerala during the violence. Going by the police notices served, it looks likes everything has been done with an ulterior motive,” he alleged.
Content of the notice
Notices addressing individuals stated that the police have enough evidence that they were part of the anti-CAA/NRC protest, which turned violent. The incident is being probed. The individual is requested to appear before the investigating officer and if he fails to do so, strict action will be taken, the notices stated.
“The case is now being handled by the CID. The investigation officer has sent a notice only after learning that a certain individual was present at the venue on December 19. It is an opportunity for the person who received the notice to appear and assist in the investigation, and explain as to why they were there. It is done in a transparent manner and no innocent person will be harassed. I deny that people were served notices based on data collected from mobile towers,” said P S Harsha, city police commissioner.