Is there anything moral in what moral police do?

 

Over the years, there has been an increase in the incidents of men and women gathering and beating up the wrong-doer in public. This is called ‘dharmadetu’ means slap of the religion. In the above-said incident, a boy was beaten up by a group of people who allegedly claimed he was teasing a girl. But some time later the news broke that the boy was in love with a girl of different caste, and her parents had sent people to beat the boy, and currently he is being treated in a hospital in Gubbi.

 

Watch the video here:

 

Wherever there are incidents of love, the moral police come out of nowhere and beat the man or sometimes the couple in public. Moral police are active in every region and beat up people for various reasons from stealing to alleged rape, eve teasing or even for digging for wealth.

 

In most situations, the ones who beat up the accused even project themselves as the people protecting the culture of the state. The accused are tied to a tree or even a chair and is beaten up continuously amidst the abuses.

 

However, in most cases the accused is handed over to the police, a case is registered. But it looks like the buck stops there. Hardly there are any reports of these people being sentenced or proved innocent. Even those who had beaten up the accused are not found anywhere near the police station. What matters them the most is their video being shown in the loop in media over and over again.

 

 

However, in records, India has a low rate of sentencing the rapists. But can that justify people beating up the ‘accused’ in public? Below are different incidents which occurred in 2015, 2016 and this year, where people received the dharmadetu by the so called moral police, without even proving their crime!

 

On January 17, this year, Ravikumar Vajeri of Bidar dressed like a person from the Muslim community and went around Humnabad requesting people money to go to Ajmer Sharif, which is a Muslim pilgrimage in Rajasthan. Bust as he could not fake the accent to match with his dress, he was questioned by the people from Muslim community there. When they found his real colours, the first thing they did was to hit him with whatever they got and then he was handed over to the police.

 

 

In another incident which occurred on January 4, this year in Hassan, 23-year-old Thippesh of Harihar was beaten black and blue by the people at the Sukharayapattana Railway Station. The accused is alleged of trying to rape an eight-year-old girl. Thippesh had noticed the daughter of daily wage workers in the railway station premises. He bribed her with ₹100 note and was trying to be inappropriate with her when some people noticed it and gave dharmadetu, as they call it. Later, they took Tippesh to Arasikere police station, and a case was booked against him.

 

On November 1, last year at Chandachana in Dharwad district, 27-year-old Laku Chowhan was caught by the people of Mahaveer Tanda for allegedly raping a minor from their group. The people tied him to a tree and beat him up till he dropped. Then they informed the police, and a case was registered.

 

 

Anil from Yadgir district, who was stealing bikes which were parked was caught red handed by the people and was handed over to a constable on duty in the same area only after he was beaten up in public on December 19, last year.

 

24-year-iold Anil from Mysuru was caught by the public at KG Koppalu on November 23 in 2016 while he was teasing the girls from Marimallappa College. The public bashed Anil and then handed him over to the Devaraj Police.

 

 

This incident which occurred on October 17 in 2016 grabbed the headlines as a youth visiting the ashram at Jagaluru took a selfie by sitting on the special seat reserved for the seer Shanthalinga Shivacharya Swamiji of the Mutt. The boy immediately posted it on his Facebook too. The devotees of the seer caught him and gave him the beatings and then handed him over to the Jagaluru police.

 

In an interesting incident in April in 2015, a group of six from Kerala on request from a localite Nagaraj came to a village in Kunigal under the leadership of one Unnikrishnan, and allegedly performed some witchcraft before digging two large holes in a land belonging to a man from Kunigal. The team was about to dig another hole at midnight when the villagers arrived caught all the six and beat them up. They handed the six persons to the Kunigal police only in the morning the next day.

 

In all these cases, the truth was not found out or did not get the coverage as much as the beatings got. Thus the aim of moral police is served, they are glorified on the social and news media and no one cares if the accused is an innocent!

 

Disclaimer: Pictures used for representation only.