Four Sri Ram Sene members who were arrested for vandalising an elderly Muslim vendor’s watermelon cart in Karnataka were released on bail on Saturday, 16 April.
The accused were not only welcomed back by the Sri Ram Sene, but were garlanded and felicitated upon their release.
A watermelon was also smashed at the ceremony, seemingly to praise the group’s targeting of the elderly Muslim fruit vendor in Karnataka’s Dharwad district.
Sri Ram Sene’s Chidananda Kalal, Kumar Kattimani, Mylarappa Guddappanavar and Mahalinga Aigali had vandalised the cart of Nabisaab Killedaar, a Muslim fruit vendor selling watermelons outside the Hanumantha Temple at Nuggikeri village near Dharwad.
On 9 April, the four culprits picked up watermelons from his cart and threw them to the ground, destroying them. The visuals of smashed watermelons next to the temple went viral, and subsequently, the four were arrested.
The four had been sent to judicial custody till 22 April but they received bail on Saturday, 16 April.
On Saturday evening, after their release, the Sri Ram Sene welcomed the four culprits by smashing a watermelon in front of them. The slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ were raised and the four, wearing saffron shawls, were felicitated by fellow Sri Ram Sene members. A video shows a Sri Ram Sene member lighting a small diya on the watermelon and then breaking it.
In this case, the Sri Rama Sene had justified their actions, claiming that they had issued a ‘warning’ to the Muslim vendors a month ago to not sell near Hindu temples. The act of destruction was because the Muslim vendors did not relocate, they claimed.
Hindu organisations like the Sri Ram Sene have been carrying out a malicious campaign across the state against Muslim vendors at temples, and have found implicit support from the ruling BJP government in the state. TNM had earlier spoken to the Muslim vendor, who has been selling fruits outside the temple for 20 years now.
(Published in arrangement with The News Minute.)
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