Karnataka Bajrang Dal convenor held for church attacks

COMMUNALISING THE COUNTRY: He was held after he released a statement to the media on Sunday.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Maharaj or Dada, Ganguly's legacy lives on

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi: Karnataka Bajarang Dal Convener, Mahendra Kumar was arrested in Mangalore late on Friday night.

He was held after he released a statement to the media on Sunday claiming responsibility for attack on Christian institutions in the state.

The police have taken a suo moto cognizance in the case and have booked him under Section 153A and Section 120B for inciting communal disharmony and conspiracy and abettment respectively.

Earlier, the National Commission For Minorities - which visited Mangalore on Wednesday to assess the situation following Sunday's attack on churches and prayer halls there and violence the next day during protests by Christians - had sought the arrest of Mahendra Kumar.

A number of churches, prayer halls and Christian religious symbols were damaged in Sunday's attack in Mangalore, headquarters of Dakshina Kannada district and in Udupi and Chikmagalur districts.

The Karnataka government on Friday night announced the setting up of an enquiry commission headed by B K Somashekara, former judge of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh high courts, to probe the attacks and the subsequent violence.

Hindu groups as well as the Karnataka government say the attacks were the fallout of some Christian groups indulging in conversion activity and distributing literature offensive to Hindu faithfuls.

The government had, however, condemned the attacks and told the Hindu groups not to take law into their hands but inform the government if they come across any conversion activity in the state.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Home Minister V S Acharya that Mahendra Kumar was arrested as an individual and not as a part of Bajrang Dal.

"Bajrang Dal is not involved. If anyone is involved then they will be arrested. We don't think that in Karnataka Bajrang Dal workers are involved. Mahendra Kumar was arrested as an individual and not part of Bajran Dal," says Acharya.