Three men were arrested in Bengaluru on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting a migrant worker from Bihar for wearing a saffron towel, the police said.
The incident occurred at 9.30 pm on August 24, opposite the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus stand in Kalasipalya.
The police identified the accused as Tabrez, 30, a mechanic from Nagawara, Imran Khan, 35, a radium-cutting worker from Banashankari, and Ajeez Khan, 47, a real estate worker from Tilak Nagar.
According to the First Information Report filed by Harikrishna, a loading supervisor at Royal Travels, the accused confronted Slinder Kumar, a loading worker at the travel agency’s office, demanded that he remove his saffron towel, and questioned why he was permitted to wear it.
“They pushed Kumar and questioned why he was wearing a saffron towel,” Harikrishna stated in the FIR. When he intervened, he alleged, the men abused and assaulted him too, tearing his shirt.
The Kalasipalya police registered a case under sections 115 (2), 302 and 352 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on charges related to voluntarily causing hurt, uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of any person, and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, among others.
Seemant Kumar Singh, Police Commissioner, Bengaluru City, confirmed the arrests on Tuesday and said that nobody can take the law into their own hands.
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S Girish, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), said that the accused have been handed over to judicial custody for 15 days.