At least six people have been booked in Karnataka’s Mangaluru for threatening and assaulting two people from different faiths for being seen together amid a series of moral policing cases in the state.
According to their complaint in the case, the two college students, who are around 20, were returning home when they were waylaid by around half-a-dozen people on two-wheelers. The mob then asked for their names and started to verbally abuse them for moving together despite being from different faiths. The complaint said the mob asked the woman among the two why was she with a Muslim and if she could not find any Hindu. The two were later assaulted and warned of consequences if they were seen together again.
Police said further investigation was underway.
There has been a spate of moral policing cases and hate crimes in the state. The Opposition has blamed Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai’s statements for emboldening such crimes.
“There are several sentiments in the society. Those emotions should not be affected and such should be the behaviour. When such emotions are hurt there is likely to be an action and reaction,” Bommai said in Mangaluru on October 13. “Even youngsters should watch their actions to ensure it does not hurt sentiments of the society. Bommai said there should be morality in society. “We cannot live without it.”