K’taka police warns groups not to disrupt Valentine’s Day celebrations

IANS

Mangaluru, 12 Feb 2021: Mangaluru city Police Commissioner, N. Shashi Kumar on Thursday warned people not to disrupt the Valentine’s Day celebrations on February 14.

 

The Police Commissioner intervened after ‘several persons claiming’ that they were from Bajrang Dal, a youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), warned on social media sites to oppose the Valentine’s Day celebrations.

 

Kumar told reporters that the Mangaluru police will keep a tight vigil during the V Day celebrations and no group will be allowed to disrupt the peace in the region.

 

“We have already advised those who had posted such ‘warnings’ but they are under our constant scanner,” he said.

 

Kumar added ‘some of these people’ had even gone a step ahead and warned florists, gift centres and hoteliers not to offer their services to ‘such couples’.

 

The Commissioner said that as soon as the police officials were drawn attention to such posts by those groups, a ‘bind over’ order was issued against them.

 

“The bind-over order is nothing but a legal provision through which the police takes custody of erring people into its custody and lets them off against warning but it is not just a warning, the accused will have to be complying certain conditions which are laid out in this order. These conditions differ case by case,” he added.

 

Kumar further said that the police will deploy striking force across the ‘sensitive’ areas, where such anti-social forces had attacked in the past.