In communally polarised Karnataka, government agencies have often been accused of not applying the law equally to Muslims and Hindus. It’s a common refrain from secular activists that Muslims who participate in violence are investigated for terror links while Hindus are passed off as ordinary criminals without much investigation into their ideology or organisational links. Even when it comes to providing financial relief, families of Muslim victims are systematically overlooked in blatant disregard for Article 14 of the Indian Constitution that guarantees equality.
TNM revisited 8 cases of communal violence in the state from 2016 and found that while families of Hindu victims of communal violence received compensation from the BJP state government, the same compensation was not given to families of Muslim victims. And the charges against Hindu perpetrators accused in murders were diluted while Muslim perpetrators were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The most recent series of communal killings in Karnataka took place in July 2022 when Mohammed Masood (19) was assaulted and killed by men affiliated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Kalanja village in Dakshina Kannada district. Masood’s killing was followed by the back-to-back murders of Praveen Nettaru (34), a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Yuva Morcha worker, and Mohammed Fazil (24), a young Muslim labourer who had no political affiliations.
Even though all three killings were clearly motivated by communal hatred, no government official visited the families of the slain Muslims.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and a bevy of BJP leaders visited Praveen Nettaru’s home on July 28, 2022 and handed over a compensation cheque of Rs 25 lakh to his family. The CM and his entourage did not visit the home of Masood who lived just six km away and was murdered a few days before Praveen on July 21. Masood and Fazil’s families have not received any compensation from the state to this day. Those accused of murdering the Muslim men were charged with murder under the IPC while those accused of murdering Praveen were charged under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
For the families of the Muslim men murdered in Dakshina Kannada, the state’s response has confirmed their worst fear – there is now a brazen bias in the way the state government treats communally motivated murders of Muslim men. “The Chief Minister did a disservice to his position by not visiting Masood’s parents when they were grieving,” said Abdul Harees, a close relative of Masood, still aggrieved by the state government’s response to the events of July 2022. “Both Praveen and Masood’s lives matter, but it is hurtful to think that the state government does not recognise them as equal. It makes you question whether all government departments, including the police, will treat us equally anymore.”
The families of Masood and Fazil were given a compensation of Rs 30 lakh each by the Muslim Central Committee, a collective of Muslim groups in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. But there was no compensation forthcoming from the state government.
For many observers in Dakshina Kannada, the bias in the state government’s response over communal killings has been clear since the BJP came to power in 2019. Not only did the state government revoke cases filed against members of Hindutva groups in the state, it also denied compensation to the families of two Muslim men killed after police opened fire during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in Mangaluru in December 2019.
Nouseen Yane (23) and Abdul Jaleel (49), two men from working class Muslim families, died on the spot after they were shot in the head and chest by the police. Even though the then Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa announced compensation for the families of the two unarmed protesters, the decision was immediately revoked and the two men were soon listed as ‘accused’ in rioting cases filed by the Mangaluru police.
A viral video from the day of the protests showed a Mangaluru police official, Shantaram Kunder, ordering his colleagues to fire lethal shots at protesters, saying ‘not one person has died’.
More than three years after the incident, Mohammed Jaffer, a relative of Abdul Jaleel, told TNM, “They (police) wanted to safeguard themselves. The police had put their names in the FIR so they could justify their killing saying they were criminals. It is plain injustice that the state government revoked the compensation meant for our family and instead criminalised Abdul.”
His words are echoed by Noufal Yane, Nousheen’s brother, who said that the state government had made assurances to his family following the death. “We even met BS Yediyurappa at the Circuit House in Mangaluru. But the assurances made to us in person were not honoured and soon, Nousheen was branded a stone-pelter,” Noufal said.
While Muslim victims of communal violence were denied compensation, the BJP government has continued to promptly give large sums of money to families of Hindu victims. In February 2022, the state government handed over a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the family of Harsha Jingade, a Bajrang Dal leader and history sheeter from Shivamogga who was killed by Muslim men at the height of the hijab agitation in Karnataka.
Harsha had a criminal record and had previously been on the police’s radar in incidents of assaulting Muslim men and rioting. He was allegedly murdered by a local Muslim gang over a long-standing communal rivalry.
Sachin Raikar, a close friend of Harsha, said that his murder led to an outpouring of emotion among members of Hindutva groups and the BJP in Shivamogga. “The family received Rs 25 lakh from the Karnataka government and there was unbelievable support from the Hindu community. Money was collected through Postcard News and contributions came from many BJP leaders – Pratap Simha, Shobha Karandlaje, and others,” Sachin told TNM. The 10 Muslim men accused in the case were all charged under UAPA.
However, the family of Rudresh, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker killed in Bengaluru in 2016 when the Congress was in power, said that they did not receive any relief from the state government following his death. Rudresh was hacked to death by a group of people which included members of the now banned Popular Front of India (PFI). “They had promised to give me a government job but that has not materialised in the last six years,” said Vidya, Rudresh’s wife.
Activists and lawyers in the state condemned the state government’s repeated discrimination in its response to cases of sectarian violence. By giving financial compensation only to Hindu families, Bommai has violated Article 14 and Article 15 (1) of the Constitution, said Maitreyi Krishnan, a Bengaluru-based human rights advocate. Article 14 refers to equality before the law and Article 15 (1) forbids discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.
“When the state government gives compensation to selected families of communal violence, it is a violation of the law and the Chief Minister should be held accountable for it. The state has repeatedly discriminated against Muslim victims of communal killings,” Maitreyi said.
This reporting is possible with support from Report for the World, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.