Watch: DySP Ganapathy's Kulshekhar church scandal in 2008

 

Even as opposition parties are staging a dharna in the Karnataka Assembly demanding the resignation of urban development minister KJ George over DySP MK Ganapathy’s allegations of harassment, an alleged 2008 video of Ganapathy and his men lathi charging people outside a church has resurfaced.

 

Watch video:

 

So, what happened in Mangalore, which led to the first of many departmental enquiries against MK Ganapathy?

 

Ganapathy was posted as an inspector at Kadri police station in Mangaluru in 2008.

 

On September 14 of that year, the Adoration Monastery of the Sisters of St-Clare, near the Milagres Church in Hampankatta, was attacked by Bajrang Dal and Sri Rama Sene activists.

 

Reportedly the attacks were carried out to intimidate Christians who loudly protested against attacks on nuns and religious heads in Odisha.

 

Another angle floated at the time was that a congregation of Christians named New Life was responsible for several conversions of Hindus in the area. The conversions were the excuse for the violence by the Hindutva forces.

 

Activists of the Sri Rama Sene and the Bajrang Dal also attacked churches and prayer halls in various other parts of Mangaluru as well.

 

The basis of the later departmental enquiry, other than the lathi-charging incident, were the strong rumours that inspector Ganapathy was giving tacit support to these factions during these attacks.

 

Coming to the incident in question, as can be seen in the video, police entered Kulshekhar church premises (which comes under Ganapathy’s Kadri police station limits) on September 24 and asked the congregation gathered for prayer to come outside.

 

When worshippers refused to leave before finishing their prayers, police were seen entering the church and chasing people out, while attacking them with lathis. Even a few tear gas canisters were shot at the gathering.

 

In total, 418 people suffered fractures, 198 had head injuries and more than a thousand suffered minor injuries.

 

This incident was witnessed and recounted by a Mangaluru journalist named Naveen Soorinje.

 

Another witness, Michael F Saldanha, former judge of the Bombay High Court, told news portal Daijiworld, "When the prayer session was in progress the police entered the church and sealed the place. When all were sitting quietly, they started the lathi charge on nuns and the other people. The police also went to the altar and beat the priest and the altar was vandalised. When I enquired these officers, they said that they had the then home minister Dr V S Acharya for support and no one could harm them,"

 

The incident resulted in protests by Christian communities, and BJP government was criticised for its apparent lack of ability to bring the situation under control.

 

In some time, Ganapathy was transferred to Bengaluru and a departmental enquiry was set up against him.

 

There was another, similar incident against civilians as well. , "In Kulshekar, DySP Ganapati also ordered a lathi charge in the girls' school premises which were run by nuns. The nuns were beaten black and blue. As many as 51 people suffered head injuries, 70 people had one or more fractures. Later, as inspector Ganapati stated, he was transferred from Kadri station."

 

These incidents had a minor effect - Ganapathy's promotion to DySP was highly delayed. Ironically, when he was eventually promoted as DySP, he was posted right back in Mangaluru, where he experienced the first problem of his career.

 

He breathed his last in Madikeri, Kodagu in July.