BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court has pulled up Whitefield Police over the alleged illegal arrest of an activist in connection with a Facebook post celebrating the cancellation of comedian Kunal Kamra’s show in Bengaluru.Justice M Nagaprasanna was hearing a petition in Mohan Gowda vs State of Karnataka and another on August 28, when the court expressed concern over the manner in which the police handled the case.During the hearing, the judge observed that “Whitefield Police Station appears to have been violating the law time and again.”The case relates to a representation submitted to Whitefield Police Station by an organisation called Hindu Rashtra Samanvaya Samithi. The organisation had approached the police over Kunal Kamra’s proposed comedy show at Uru in Whitefield. The show was subsequently cancelled.Following the cancellation, the petitioner posted on Facebook that the show had been called off and described it as a “victory for Hindu unity.” Police later registered a case based on the post.The petitioner’s lawyer told the court that the case was not based on a complaint from any individual but was registered ‘not on a complaint by anybody but on a suo motu case registered by the Whitefield Police Station’.The court questioned the basis on which the police treated the Facebook post as a potential threat to communal harmony.It observed, “The police constable of the Whitefield Police Station gets concerned about the imaginary disharmony overnight and alleges such disharmony to be because of the post of the petitioner calling it a victory for Hindu unity.”According to the proceedings, the petitioner was in Udupi at around 2 am when a police constable from Whitefield Police Station allegedly travelled there and took him into custody. He was then brought back to Whitefield Police Station and made to remain there in connection with offences under Sections 273 and 353 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).The court also questioned the manner in which the police served a notice under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The notice was handed to the petitioner only after he had been secured and taken into custody, at a location a short distance from Whitefield Police Station.The court noted another issue with the timing of the notice. Notices issued under Section 35(3) of the BNSS on August 5 and August 6 directed the petitioner to appear before the police within the following three days. However, by that time, he had already been taken into custody.Justice Nagaprasanna observed, “A notice indicating the later date of appearance appears to have been used to take the petitioner into custody 3 days prior to the fixed date itself. This has been the modus operandi of the policeman who mans the Whitefield Police Station,”The high court has now sought an explanation from the concerned Deputy Commissioner of Police and Assistant Commissioner of Police regarding the alleged repeated violations by the Whitefield Police.
