Bengaluru: A local leader of the radical outfit, Sri Rama Sene, has been arrested on the charges of poisoning a drinking water tank in a school to allegedly get the Muslim headmaster transferred, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah confirmed Sunday.
The statement came a day after the Sri Rama Sene leader was arrested in Belagavi district, about 510 km from Bengaluru.
“The headmaster of the government school in Hulikatti village, Savadatti taluk, Belagavi district, belongs to the Muslim community. With the malicious intent of having him transferred elsewhere, Sagar Patil, the taluk president of Sri Rama Sene, along with two others, has been arrested for poisoning the drinking water of school children,” Siddaramaiah said in a post on X.
Several children fell ill, but no lives were lost in this incident that occurred 15 days ago, he added.
He added that if the outfit, notorious for trying to moral policing and trying to incite communal unrest, was successful, this would result in the massacre of innocent children.
“Religious fundamentalism and communal hatred can lead to heinous acts, and this incident, which could have resulted in the massacre of innocent children, is a testament to that,” Siddaramaiah said.
Patil was aided allegedly by Krishna Madar and Naganagouda Patil, who are residents of the same village.
The incident was first reported on July 14 when 11 students were hospitalised after drinking water from the water tank. They were taken to the local hospital after they started to vomit and complained of stomach ache.
This led to the Belagavi police investigating the school’s headmaster, Suleman Gorenayak. The headmaster has served in the school for around 10 years.
Headed by Pramod Muthalik, who has been accused of fanning communal tensions on more than one occasion, the Sri Rama Sene hit headlines in 2009 when the group attacked a pub in the coastal city of Mangaluru, assaulting college students, including women. The vigilantes stormed the pub and accused the students of violating Indian values.
In January, Prasad Attavar-led Rama Sene, an offshoot of the group, vandalised a salon in Mangaluru accusing the people there of indulging in “immoral activities”.
Attavar is a former member of the Muthalik-led Sri Rama Sene but split from the group sometime in 2013 over internal differences. But he was with the Muthalik-led vigilante group in 2009 when members of the organisation attacked and assaulted those inside Amnesia-The Lounge.
Muthalik had contested the 2023 elections from Karkala in Karnataka, securing just over 4,500 votes as an independent. He was briefly admitted to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014 in Karnataka only to be booted out a couple of hours later.
“BJP leaders who sow hatred in society in the name of religion to cook their political broth should introspect. Will Pramod Mutalik take responsibility for this incident? Will @BYVijayendra take responsibility? Will @RAshokaBJP take responsibility? Leaders who always support such socially destructive acts should now come forward and atone for their sins,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Karnataka government, he added, had also formed a Special Task Force (STF) to curb hate speech and communal riots after at least two instances of murders and one mob-lynching in the coastal districts since the last week of May.
“I still believe that the number of people who wish to live together in harmony is a hundred times greater than the number of communalists,” Siddaramaiah said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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