A former member of fringe right-wing Sri Ram Sene was arrested today for sharing a controversial tweet four days after scholar and rationalist MM Kalburgi was shot dead at his home. Dr Kalburgi had several run-ins with fringe groups for his views on religion.
Here are the latest developments:
- Prasad Avatka had shared a controversial tweet by Bajrang Dal activist Bhuvit Shetty, posted after Dr Kalburgi's murder. Shetty had deleted the tweet, but he was arrested on Monday and later released on bail.
- Avatka was a member of Bajranj Dal for 8 years, after which he joined Sri Ram Sene. But he quit the group, which is notorious for moral policing.
- Avatka had been in jail in 2010 in connection to another case, was booked this time for promoting enmity between different groups and criminal intimidation.
- The Bajrang Dal, affiliated to a group of organisations led by the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, held several protests against Professor Kalburgi last year.
- Dr Kalburgi, 77, the former vice chancellor of Hampi University, had provoked the groups by speaking in support of noted author UR Ananthamurthy when he shared that as a child, he had urinated on stone figurines.
- The professor had received many threats to his life, say family and friends. Last year, he was given police protection, which was removed after three months on his request.
- He was shot dead on Sunday at his home in Karnataka's Dharwad by gunmen who came on a bike, rang his doorbell and asked to meet him.
- The police have released the sketches of the two men, but no arrest has been made in the case yet.
- The state government has said the case will be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
- The Sri Ram Sene came into the national spotlight in 2009, when its activists were caught on camera thrashing women at a pub and dragging them by their hair, accusing them of denigrating their culture.
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