Mangaluru: A self-styled fact-finding team from the city observed that the lathi-charge and firing by the police during the outbreak of violence on December 19, 2019 was ‘disproportionate’ and created panic among the public.
The team comprised members from the All India People’s Forum (AIPF), the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation (NCHRO).
PUCL Karnataka president Y J Rajendra Prasad informed the media that a report of the findings would be submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Chief Justice of India through a district legal services authority. He also informed that the team’s findings are based on field visits, interaction with eyewitnesses, people being treated in hospitals, family members of people who died in the firing and video footage.
“We also collected information from the district Wenlock Hospital, wherein 66 people are being treated for their injuries. A total of 42 police personnel were also injured. We also found that the people who were injured in the lathi-charge and police firing were not protesters, but students and daily wage workers,” he said and added that the families of the two deceased should be provided an ex gratia of at least Rs 10 lakh.
Meanwhile, the team has urged the government to initiate a judicial inquiry into the police firing and to release 25 of the youth arrested during the incident in question.
