Mandya: In an extremely new level of Islamophobia 3 Hindus posing as Muslims and threatening to spread Corona-virus were arrested in Karnataka.
On 8th April, 3 men in an auto came to a check post at KR Pet (Mandya district), told officials they were Muslims, threatened to spread the Corona Virus, and fled. The news spread like wildfire, across the region. They’ve been caught now and turned out to be Hindus.
Press Release from the tahsildar of KR Pete: (Translated from Kannada)
Date: 08. 04. 2020 3 young men were traveling in auto, threatened on-duty officers and escaped the checkpoint beside Jockey Factory in Mysore Road at night around 10: 45 pm. On hearing the news I immediately reached the spot of the incident. When I enquired on-duty officers at check-post they said when we tried to stop men traveling in auto, they showed us quarantined seal and said “we are Muslim youths, we have coronavirus, and if you try to catch us, we will kill you by spreading the virus” and than escaped the scene. Later, the police took action and arrested the youths in the village of Bukanekare Hobali, Bellekere. The accused were identified as 1) Mahesh bin Kempattegowda, 2) Abhi@ Abhishek bin Mahesh 3) Srinivasa@Appu bin Puttaswamy, a F. I. R has been registered. Even though they are Hindus for the purpose of escaping the check-post, the accused have lied that they are Muslims, which later came to light after the arrest.
The above accused had lied to the staff of the check-post for the purpose of escaping from them we have informed this to media. There were no bad intentions behind informing media earlier.
There are no Muslim youths spreading the Korona virus in KR Pate Taluk, and the news that the Muslims are spreading the disease is far from the truth. Therefore people should not stay in any fear and requested to work towards communal harmony and lead normal day to day life and help authorities curtain spread of corona virus.
