Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
The Sadashivanagar police have arrested seven people in connection with the desecration of Shivaji statue here.
A few days ago,the statue of Shivaji at Sadashivanagar was smeared with black ink by some miscreants.
The arrested were identified as Chetan Gowda, President of Karnataka Ranadheera Pade, Gurudeva Narayankumar, Varun, Naveen Gowda, Vinod, Chetan Kumar and Yogesh Gowda.
Senior officer told media persons,It was a pre planned act carried out by the prime accused identified as Chethan Gowda and his associates Gurudev Narayana Kumar, Naveen,Vinod,Arun Darshan and Yogesh to retaliate on burning kannada flag in Maharashtra and went around the city to do recce before identifying Shivaji Statue at Bashyam circle on BBMP land on Sankey road .
The accused had planned to desecrate the statue of Shivaji four days ago and executed their plan in Bengaluru last Thursday.
They visited the spot on Monday and Tuesday for a recce, and made an futile attempt to desecrate the statue last Wednesday, but beat police foiled their plan. Later, a group of 13 members including the accused executed their plan on Thursday.
The accused also shot the video of their action to make it viral on social media.
As per the plan the accused arrived in a car, two auto rickshaws and three bikes, carrying black paint and a ladder to blacken the statue in the wee hours of Friday and fled the scene.
While the accused busy doing the act,Naveen recorded the act on his mobile and later circulated it on social media with the inflammatory messages .
This has led the police to track them down and arrested Naveen and based on his information the police arrested others .
The police also analyzed the CCTV footage from in and around the area and obtained major clues which corroborated the evidence gathered by the police to prove the accused involvement .
The police have seized the vehicles,hand bills, ladder used by the accused and efforts are on to track down others involved in the case.
During investigation the accused confessed the crime and it has revealed that the accused are cab drivers and autorickshaw drivers belonging to a Pro Kannada organization.
The accused confessed that they committed the offence in retaliation but this has led to disturbance of law and order and creating hatred between two communities,
Meanwhile security cover has been provided to the statues of freedom fighters and the police have been directed to step up patrolling in the sensitive areas.
The accused have been booked under section 153 ( rioting) and 427 ( mischief ) of the IPC and also under various sections of the Prevention of damage to public property Act.
The Sadashivanagar police have launched a hunt for others who are absconding said a senior officer.
Home Minister of Karnataka,Araga Jnanendra said Perpetrators who tried to create disharmony will be strictly dealt with stringent action.
Belagavi and other parts of the state both the community people living hormonously, but there are some elements who tried to create tension. He said.
The law will take its course and people who involved in law and order problem will not be spared he added.
Finally Karnataka Home Minister,Araga Jnanendra,has appreciated DG&IGP,Praveen Sood,City police commissioner,Kamal Pant,Addl CP West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,DCP Central,MN Anucheth,and his special team who has worked day and night tirelessly in nabbing all the accused after a meticulous investigation by the team who acted swiftly in nabbing the miscreants using technology skill of investigation and a special reward will be given to the whole team for their excellent investigation he added.
