After Siddaramaiah's ‘no moral policing’ order, 2 held for harassing interfaith couple in Karnataka

Two people were arrested on Friday in connection with alleged harassment of an interfaith couple at a restaurant in Karnataka’s Chikkaballapura district.

Two people were arrested on Friday for allegedly harassing an interfaith couple at a restaurant in Karnataka’s Chikkaballapura district, police said.

According to the police, the incident took place on May 23 when the couple was at an eatery in Chikkaballapura district. (representative)

According to the police, the incident took place on May 23 when the couple was at an eatery in Chikkaballapura district. “Based on the statement of eyewitnesses, three men approached the couple while they were having a meal, and started questioning the woman about her religious background. They also passed derogatory remarks against the woman for being with a Hindu man, and hurled abuses. The accused captured the whole incident in a video and threatened to post it online,” said an official familiar with the matter.

The accused also forced the 22-year-old woman to apologise on camera, and vow not to repeat the “mistake”, while the man was compelled to declare that everyone present around was his brother and sister, the official added.

Read: Four held for assaulting interfaith couple in Mangaluru

The police took note of the incident after the video went viral, and tracked the woman. “We were able to track down the woman, and based on her complaint, we have arrested the two men,” said a senior officer.

Those arrested have been identified as 20-year-old Wayeed and 21-year-old Saddam, both residents of Nakkalakunte in Chikkaballapur. A search operation has been launched for another accused, Imran, the official added.

The incident comes days after chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar came down heavily on the top brass of the state police, and told them to take stringent actions in cases of moral policing. He also warned that a failure to do so would result in action against the district commissioner of police (DCP) and superintendent of police (SP). “No moral policing here on, we will put an end to this...” the CM said on May 22.