The Bengaluru police have arrested 41 members of the pro-Kannada organisation, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), for allegedly slipping into the Taj West End Hotel in the city in the guise of customers to stage a protest and disrupt a meeting of central government officials on the promotion of Hindi as the official language.
KRV activists Thursday entered the meeting of 33 central government departments, organised by the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language, and raised slogans, disrupting the meeting.
“Between approximately 10.45 am and 11 am, 30 to 40 members of an organisation illegally entered the venue in protest against the meeting agenda, obstructed the work of government officials present, and created a disturbance. This caused a temporary disruption to the meeting,” the Bengaluru police said in an official statement on Friday.
“The police immediately arrived at the scene, took the protesters into custody, and controlled the situation. Consequently, the meeting at the Taj West End Hotel faced a brief interruption but was completed as per the pre-scheduled program, owing to the timely intervention of the police,” the police added.
Based on a complaint filed by G Krishnamurthy, Regional Director, Central Ground Water Board, a case was registered against the protesters at the High Grounds Police Station.
‘Protesters Posed As Customers’
According to the police complaint filed by the central government official, the Hindi progress review meeting at the Tamarind Hall at the Taj West End had gone off well for two days on September 23 and 24 before the interruption by the protesters.
The protesters entered like customers “coming in one by one, and suddenly took out the red and yellow shawls of the organisation and displayed placards,” the complainant said.
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“In the Pumeria Hall, where our program was being held, they vandalised and destroyed the items on display, and entered the Tamarind Hall where the workshop was being held and said that they were activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and were opposing the Hindi programme,” the complainant further stated.
“They shouted slogans opposing Hindi language. They tore the Hindi banners, smashed glass bottles containing water, destroyed other items, created an atmosphere of fear in the place, abused us with abusive words and threatened our lives,” Krishnamurthy alleged.
The police have registered a case, charging the accused of criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, promoting enmity between groups, wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt and use of criminal force to deter a public servant, among others, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The accused were produced before the court.