Police And Peers Assaulted Student In Belagavi Holding The Kannada Flag

A student was attacked by a group of students while dancing and waving a Kannada flag following the closing ceremony of an inter-school cultural festival held at KLS Gogte PU College in Belagavi on Wednesday night. That was the moment when the ongoing dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra in the border regions took a violent turn.

According to the victim and a few campaigners, police officers also mistreated the student. Since the animosity between the two neighbouring states grew in recent weeks, this is the first instance of a violent assault occurring.

The student claims that the Belagavi city police, who arrived on the scene quickly, physically assaulted him and called him names for raising the flag. On Thursday morning, protestors from a number of Kannada organisations demonstrated outside the institution to voice their outrage at the police.

The victim, who was injured and was taken to a hospital, said that the police officers from the Tilakwadi police station and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ravindra Gadadi, physically assaulted and degraded him.