Top police brass in coastal Karnataka changed in wake of communal murders

Indian Express

a day ago

In the wake of a fresh cycle of communal murders in the coastal regions of Mangaluru and Dakshina Kannada over the last month, the Karnataka government after being under pressure from its local party unit, has effected a series of changes to senior police officers deputed to the region.
On Thursday, the government appointed Deputy Inspector General-rank officer C H Sudhir Kumar Reddy as the new Mangaluru police commissioner, in place of the incumbent Anupam Agrawal.
Reddy, who served previously as the superintendent of police (SP) of the Dakshina Kannada region, is currently a joint director in the state intelligence department.
He is considered to have extensive knowledge of the coastal region and is regarded as a no-nonsense police officer.
The government also appointed the current SP for the coastal Udupi region, K Arun, as the new SP of the neighbouring Dakshina Kannada district in place of the incumbent officer, N Yathish.
Arun is considered to be familiar with policing the communally polarised coastal region on account of a fairly successful tenure of 21 months in the neighbouring coastal Karnataka region.
While Agrawal served a 21-month tenure as Mangaluru police commissioner, Yathish held the Dakshina Kannada post for less than a year.
Agrawal has been moved to the Economic Offences unit of the CID, and Yathish is yet to be posted.
The Karnataka government has also appointed former Mangaluru deputy commissioner for law and order, Hariram Shankar, who is currently with the state intelligence department, as the new SP for the Udupi region.
The order for the change of guard of the top police brass for the coastal Karnataka region came on a day when many leaders of the minority unit of the ruling Congress party in coastal Karnataka submitted resignations to protest three communal killings in the region.
The cycle of murders occurred after a lapse of nearly three years.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah held a breakfast meeting with senior Congress leader B K Hariprasad on Thursday to ostensibly discuss the communal murders in coastal Karnataka.
Hariprasad, who hails from the region and enjoys the confidence of the All India Congress Committee, is reported to have suggested strong measures to control the law and order situation.
'We discussed the Mangaluru situation in particular,' Siddaramaiah said after the meeting with Hariprasad.
'We have to restore the communal harmony in the region. Hindus and Muslims should not hold hatred for each other. I have asked Hariprasad to travel to Mangaluru,' Siddaramaiah said.
'The CM has discussed the Mangaluru issue extensively,' Hariprasad, who hails from an OBC community in coastal Karnataka, said after the meeting.
The current Dakshina Kannada in-charge minister, Dinesh Gundu Rao, also reportedly visited Siddaramaiah and sought to be relieved of his charge.
Rao, who is the state health minister, represents a constituency in Bengaluru.
In the latest communal murder in coastal Karnataka, a sand supplier and mosque secretary in the Bantwal region of Dakshina Kannada, Abdul Rahim, 32, was murdered on May 27. Three people, Deepak Poojary, 21, Prithviraj, 21, and Chiranthan, 19, all residents of Bantwal, have been arrested so far.
A friend of the victim, Kalandar Shafi, 29, who was severely injured in the attack, is under treatment at the ICU of a hospital.
The attack came on the heels of the murder of a criminal history sheeter, Suhas Shetty, 32, who was a Bajrang Dal activist and a key accused in the July 2022 murder of Mohammed Fazil in Surathkal.
Naushad alias Chotte Naushad, one of the accused in Shetty's murder, was attacked with stones in the Mangaluru Central Prison on May 19.
Prior to Shetty's murder, Mohammed Ashraf, 36, a vagabond, was lynched by a mob in Mangaluru on April 28 for a slogan he raised.
Coastal Karnataka has a long-running cycle of communal murders perpetrated by gangs that enjoy the political patronage of communal groups in the religiously polarised region.
Shetty's murder was allegedly committed at the behest of Mohammed Adil, Fazil's brother. Fazil, 23, was murdered at a clothing store in Surathkal on the outskirts of Mangaluru city on the evening of July 28, 2022.
In the wake of Rahim's murder on May 27, Karnataka Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) R Hitendra had stated that the police would take 'extraordinary steps' to regulate the law and order in coastal Karnataka.
The ADGP said the coastal region had not witnessed a series of murders for three years.
'In addition to regular preventive measures, some extraordinary steps are being taken. I have given instructions to the Dakshina Kannada and Mangaluru police officers,' he said.
In the previous high-profile cycle of murders in 2022, an 18-year-old from Kerala, Masood B, was killed in the Bellare village on July 20; a BJP youth leader from the same village, Praveen Nettaru, 32, was killed on July 26 in an apparent act of revenge; and Fazil, 23, was killed on July 28 in retaliation.
The Karnataka government also ordered the formation of a Special Action Force (SAF) to tackle communal crimes in the Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Shivamogga districts.
It will have three companies – one each for the three communally sensitive districts of the state.
The 248 posts for SAF are being carved out from the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF), whose strength of 656 personnel will now be reduced to 376.
The government has decided to reduce ANF numbers as the last known Naxals in the region surrendered in January 2025.