An FIR has been lodged against activists of Hindutva groups who had staged a protest against the replacement of saffron flag with the national tricolour at Keragodu village in Mandya on Sunday by violating the prohibitory orders and preventing officials from discharging their duty.
A senior police official said no arrests had been made.
Based on a complaint lodged by Shivakumar Biradara, tahsildar of Mandya taluk who is also the Executive Magistrate of the taluk, an FIR has been lodged against Pratap of Bilidegalu village, Avinash of Honagallimatha village, besides Prakash and others of Keragodu under various sections of IPC.
According to the complaint, a crowd of 400 to 500 people had gathered at the flagstaff in Keragodu under the leadership of the accused and others to prevent the officials including Assistant Commissioner Shivamurthy, Executive Officer Veena and Shivakumar Biradara from discharging their duty to replace an illegally hoisted saffron flag and replace it with the national flag.
After the saffron flag was lowered with the help of the police around 9 a.m. on Sunday, about 400 to 500 people had illegally gathered around the flag post even though prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC had been imposed up to a distance of 200 metres from the flag post. The protesters had tried to physically prevent them for replacing the saffron flag with the national tricolour, jostled with them and created confusion in the area, the complainant alleged.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy accused the State government of “creating documents” pertaining to permission given to the erection of flag post by the Keragodu Gram Panchayat. He claimed that the conditions in approval letters were changed twice. “While the saffron flag was allowed to fly between January 20 and 25, the villagers hoisted national flag on January 26. What were the authorities doing between January 20 and 25?” he asked.
However, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge said that there was no basis for the allegations. The permission for the trust was based on goodwill and undertaking that the national flag will be hoisted, he said. “The flag post was chained and locked by those involved. A gas cutter had to be used to cut the chain to access the flag post,” he said.
