Following an allegedly threatening speech by the leader of a fringe Muslim group, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Sunday that the state government would provide ‘Y’ category security to the three High Court judges who delivered the recent verdict in the hijab row,including Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi.
“This is an alarming sign for democracy and we should ensure that these kind of anti-national forces don’t grow. The country’s law and order is in place because of the judiciary. Why are pseudo-secular people silent now? This is not secularism but communalism. We have to stand together and protest against this act,” Bommai said in Bengaluru.
The Tamil Nadu police on Saturday arrested two leaders of the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ) after videos of their speeches showed them reminding the judges about the death of Dhanbad Additional Sessions Judge Uttam Anand, who was knocked down by an auto while on a morning walk in July last year, and raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
In a video from a protest at Goripalayam in Madurai on March 17, two days after the Karnataka High Court verdict, TMTJ leader Covai R Rahmatullah is hearing saying, “Have you forgotten the incident of last August in Jharkhand, where a judge on a morning walk was murdered for giving an anti-people judgment? Two people surrendered in the case after two days. Do you remember? Do not even think that Karnataka Muslims have accepted your judgment. If untoward things happen, let me clarify that the judges alone will be responsible.”
A similar video, from a protest organised in Thanjavur by the same group, had people raising slogans against Modi and Shah, and warning that nobody should test their patience.
With the Madurai Police filing a case under charges of promoting enmity and intent to incite, among others, Rahmatullah was arrested in Tirunelveli on Saturday evening and another leader S Jamal Mohammed Usmani was taken into custody from Thanjavur. Police said Rahmatullah is an auditing committee member of the TNTJ.
Police also booked TNTJ Madurai district president Habibullah, vice president Asan Badshah and Thanjavur district leader Rajik Mohammed. ( Indian Express )
