Congress leader held, restrictions in Bengaluru amid pending hijab judgment

According to police, Congress leader Khan was arrested from Hyderabad, where he was allegedly in hiding. He was admitted to a private hospital soon after the arrest as he complained of uneasiness.

Karnataka police on Tuesday arrested Congress leader Mukarram Khan in connection with communally provocative statements he made about the hijab controversy, police said.

Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant said it is considered very essential to initiate proper security measures to maintain public peace and order in Bengaluru city. (PTI)

According to police, Khan was arrested from Hyderabad, where he was allegedly in hiding. He was admitted to a private hospital soon after the arrest as he complained of uneasiness.

A case was registered against Khan on February 16 in Kalaburagi district based on video clips of comments he made. In the video, Khan reportedly said that those who oppose students wearing the hijab will be “chopped to pieces” and had urged the government to permit hijab-wearing students to attend classes in Sedam city.

The police had registered cases under IPC sections 153 (giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 293 (whoever, to the annoyance of others; does any obscene act in a public place) and 298 (uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person).

Kalaburagi police said that soon after the case was registered, Khan went into hiding and moved a bail petition in the district court.

Meanwhile, ahead of the Karnataka High Court verdict in the hijab matter, Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant has issued prohibitory orders in and around schools and colleges in the city till March 22. The order says that any gathering, agitation or protest of any type within a 200-metre area of schools, PU colleges, degree colleges or other similar educational institutions in Bengaluru city is barred.

Noting that agitations have been held at schools and colleges over the past few weeks in several parts of the state and disturbed public peace and order in many places, it is considered very essential to initiate proper security measures to maintain public peace and order in Bengaluru city, the commissioner said. The issue is still alive and the possibility of holding protests for and against over the issue can’t be ruled out and hence the order has been issued, he added.

Officers familiar with developments said similar restrictions will be imposed in other districts as well. The decision comes as new standoffs of the hijab row, which began after six students were denied entry to college in Udupi for wearing the hijab on December 28, 2021, were reported in the state.

In the latest incident, a third-year student of Dayananda Pai P Satisha Pai Government College in Karnataka’s Mangaluru filed a complaint against seven hijab-wearing students accusing them of threatening her during an altercation between those students and the college authorities.

The complaint, filed on March 4 by Kavana Kumari Shetty, a third-year B.Com student, comes a day after a Muslim student filed a complaint against at least 15 ABVP workers (also students) who had allegedly verbally abused the complainant and even called her “terrorist”.

On March 3, college authorities denied permission to the hijab-clad girls to appear for internal exams based on the Karnataka high court’s interim order and asked them to leave the college premises. The same students returned the following day, around noon, and crowded near the college gates, Shetty said in her complaint.

Several colleges in Karnataka have extended holidays or declared study leave to steer clear of any protests by hijab-wearing students, who are not allowed into classes with their headscarves. The students approached the Karnataka High Court on January 29. A final verdict on the case is reserved.