The Karnataka Police registered seven FIRs hours after clashes that took place over alleged partisan media coverage of the Dharmasthala secret burial case near the town and neighbouring Ujire in the Dakshina Kannada district Wednesday evening.
While four FIRs are registered at the Dharmasthala police station in connection with the assault on YouTubers, three were registered at the Belthangady police station. The clashes took place amid inspections being carried out in Dharmasthala by a Special Investigation Team, formed after a whistleblower filed a police complaint claiming that he had been forced to bury several bodies of alleged sexual assault and murder victims in the temple town.
The first of the seven FIRs was based on a complaint filed by Ajay Anchan of the Kudla Rampage YouTube channel. He told The Indian Express that he was covering the visit of a TV personality to the house of a teenage college student who was allegedly raped and murdered in 2012.
“TV personality Rajath had gone to her house, and we were there to meet him. He told us that he was getting late and would meet us midway. At Pangala Cross, we stopped and took his response. As soon as it was over, some people came there and complained that I was talking about (BJP MP and secretary of the Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Educational Society) D Veerendra Heggade and Dharmasthala,” said Anchan.
“When I asked them to give details about the defamatory comments made by me, they turned irate. The members in the group said that their ‘dhani’ had asked them to break our hands and legs, and started assaulting me and others,” he added.
Meanwhile, the police in a release said, “Around 15-20 miscreants attacked the complainant, cameraman Suhas, Santosh of Sanchari Studio and Abhishek of United Media.” The police booked the accused under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for unlawful assembly and voluntarily causing hurt, among others.
The second FIR was filed against residents of Dharmasthala for refusing to disperse from the spot despite directions from the police. The third was against the residents for staging a protest in front of the Dharmasthala police station without any prior permission from the authorities.
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Another FIR was for the alleged attack on one Pramod Kumar Shetty by a group of 30-40 people claiming to be “supporters of Dharmasthala”.
The first of the three FIRs registered at the Belthangady police station was for an alleged assault on the reporter of a Kannada news channel by supporters of a group formed to seek justice in the 2012 rape-murder case.
Harish R, a reporter of Asianet Suvarna News, claimed that activists Girish Mattannavar and Mahesh Shetty, YouTuber Sameer MD, Jayanth T and several other unidentified people attacked him when he went to a hospital to cover the attack on YouTubers. The group allegedly assaulted the reporter after recognising the logo of his channel. They punched him in the face and shoved him around, according to the FIR.
A counter FIR at the station alleged that the reporter had hurled abuse at the activists and supporters of the YouTubers who were allegedly assaulted near Dharmasthala. The FIR named Asianet Suvarna News anchor Ajit Hanumakkanavar, accusing him of broadcasting false news claiming that Shetty had attacked the reporter.
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The last FIR was against the group seeking justice for the college student group for unlawful assembly in front of the hospital at Ujire.
Responding to the clashes, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara told reporters at Bengaluru that he has sought a report from the police regarding the cause of the incident Meanwhile, the police stepped up security at Ujire and Dharmasthala following the incident.
The SIT probing allegations of secret burials in Dharmasthala Wednesday visited the grama panchayat office in the temple town, including those related to staff who worked there from 1998 to 2014, when the alleged murders and secret burials took place.
Since July 29, SIT officials have dug up 12 of the 13 sites the whistleblower cited in his complaint. They found fragments of a skeleton on the third day of the inspection and portions of another skeleton on Monday. They were expected to inspect spot 13 Thursday.