Hindutva activist Puneeth Kerehalli
Credit: X@Puneeth74353549
Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have booked Hindutva activist Puneeth Kerehalli and 20 others for trying to stage an unauthorised protest at the Town Hall on Friday.
The Bengaluru Ganesha Utsava Committee called for a protest against the Nagamangala riots that broke out between members of two different faiths during the Ganesha idol immersion on Wednesday. The Mandya police have arrested at least 52 people and are searching for more.
The committee called the protest to condemn the riots and demand an National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe. However, they neither sought police permission nor scheduled it at the Freedom Park, the designated venue for protests in the city.
Kerehalli, who has been named in at least 10 criminal cases, and nearly 40 others gathered outside the Town Hall around 10.30 am. Divided into three groups, they raised slogans against the state government and caused public nuisance, according to a police officer in the know.
"We detained the protesters and moved them into a waiting BMTC bus," the officer told DH.
Police released all 40 people towards the evening after giving them a warning. More than 20 protesters, who indulged in aggressive sloganeering and caused chaos, were booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections dealing with causing public nuisance and unlawful assembly, and under the Karnataka Police Act, the officer added.