Click to play videoNew Delhi: The attack on a Mangalore pub by alleged activists of Hindu hardliner group Ram Sena has sparked a huge outcry for a ban on moral policing.
At least eight more persons, including the Ram Sena Vice-President Prasad Attavar, were arrested on Monday night, taking the number of arrested persons to 25.
The activists arrested include district convenor Subash Padil, district vice-convenor Kishore and city convenor Ganesh.
All the accused have been produced before the Judicial Magistrate and will be in custody till Tuesday morning, police added.
On Saturday, a group of Ram Sena activists barged into a pub on Balmatta road in the heart of Mangalore city and thrashed weekend revellers, including girls, accusing them of behaving in an obscene manner.
However, Ram Sena chief Pramod Mutthalik has not yet been taken into custody.
Mutthalik spoke with CNN-IBN on Monday afternoon and justified the attack, saying his men were doing their duty and were on a campaign against obscenity.
While Karnataka government reacted to the incident only on Monday – more than 24 hours after it was reported – the sharpest and the earliest criticism came from Union Minister for Women and Child Welfare and Development Renuka Chaudhary.
After likening the incident to Talibanisation of India, Renuka on Monday called for the civil society to raise a unified voice against acts of “moral policing”.
“How does a state government believe that they can get away with this by not taking action? Does the CM not realise that women will vote according to how they react to the situation? And if they have seen Mutthalik talk nonsense and don’t even arrest him , it's as good as owning up to the crime,” she said.
“Not that we don’t have enough legislations. The civil society has to react. It has to be implemented. What do cops do? They simply wait for signs from the government and therefore, the government has to be answerable,” Renuka said.
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