A case has been registered by the police against five people, including two BJP MLAs, for allegedly inciting people and forcing students of the St Gerosa school in Mangaluru city to chant Jai Shri Ram slogans. Today, February 15, police sources said the FIR, filed at the Mangaluru South police station, has named MLAs Vedavyas Kamath, Y Bharat Shetty, city corporators Sandeep Garodi, Bharat Kumar and Bajrang Dal leader Sharan Pumpwell as the accused, as stated in a report by PTI.
The protesters were also accused of instigating enmity between the Christian and Hindu communities by directing their slogans against Christianity during the protest on February 12. Considering the sensitivity to communal issues in Dakshina Kannada district, such actions could have created law and order issues, police said.
The case has been registered under sections 143, 153A, 295A, 505(2), 506 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The management of St Gerosa English Higher Primary School told the police that Kamath initiated a protest in front of the school without seeking clarification from them. Additionally, it is alleged that students were forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram'.
The incident escalated when a teacher was removed from her post for her alleged anti-Hindu remarks. According to the diocese (region under the administration of a bishop from the Christian community) of Mangaluru, under pressure from the politicos, the school management removed the teacher from the post, pending an inquiry, to maintain law and order and ensure the safety of the student community.
Giving details on what happened inside the class, the statement read, "The statement said the teacher was speaking on Rabindranath Tagore's poem “Work is Worship” and explaining the lines “Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of the temple with doors all shut?" (English syllabus of class VII, State Board, Karnataka).
“She neither taught nor stated anything of the sort that went viral on social media,” the diocese said in the statement. Further, the diocese urged the authorities to probe into the false allegations against the English teacher and safeguard her dignity as a teacher and a woman and requested all concerned to protect the interests of minorities, women, and children, reported PTI.