College student assaulted for waving K’taka flag

NT Correspondent

Belagavi: A fest at Gogte PU College in Belagavi city took an unlikely, ugly turn on Thursday, as a student allegedly assaulted for waving the Karnataka flag while dancing. The student, who is a minor, told media persons that high-ranking police officials abused and assaulted him when he tried to register a complaint against the student who had accosted him.

Cops tried to do damage control even as the video of the incident and claimed that both students were Kannadigas and minors, adding that it might not be a language issue. The college, which is based in Marathi-majority Tilakwadi in the south of Belagavi city doesn’t usually attract language tensions.

On this day, however, members from Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Swabhimani staged a protest near the gate of Gogte college. They even climbed on the gate and hoisted the Karnataka flag atop the college arch.

Other protesters set fire to a tyre near the college and blocked traffic at the busy Rani Parvati Devi (RPD) circle nearby. The incident elicited some political reactions as well, with former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy calling for the arrest of the student who had been guilty of assault and the high-ranking cops who had allegedly abused the student at the police station.

“I strongly condemn the assault of a student at the Tilakwadi police station in Belagavi for merely hoisting the Kannada flag. The student being assaulted at the police station when he went there to register a complaint is a betrayal of Kannada and Karnataka,” he said.

“It is not fitting for DCP and ACP level police officers to have behaved such cruelty and excess in the case of these boys. The DCP abused the boy using the filthiest language, slapped him and even kicked him. This is unforgivable and reprehensible behaviour. This case should be taken up seriously by the State government. The boy is responsible for assaulting the student who flew the flag should be immediately arrested. The two police officers who misbehaved with the victim should be suspended forthwith,” he added.

Kumaraswamy has been very vocal about Kannada-related issues in the lead up to the Assembly elections. Meanwhile, the Belagavi border dispute issue has flared up in the recent weeks after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he’d lay claim to Jath taluk in Sangli district in Maharashtra. This was followed by two Maharashtra ministers planning a visit to Belagavi city to speak with pro-Marathi organisations.