Overview

• Kalaburagi police registered FIRs against BJP leader Manikanta Rathod under five sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita after a May 31 Facebook video in which he threatened mass violence against the Muslim community.
• RSS functionary Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat was booked under BNS Section 353(2) for provocative remarks at a May 12 memorial for former Bajrang Dal member Suhas Shetty, and the Karnataka High Court has stayed coercive action against him.
• The legal actions follow the May 1 murder of Suhas Shetty and the May 27 killing of Abdul Rahiman, incidents viewed as tit-for-tat reprisals in Karnataka’s coastal belt.
• Rathod has a criminal history including PDS rice smuggling and threats against Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and his family, and remains outside Kalaburagi district as investigations continue.
• Opposition leaders and civil society groups accuse the Siddaramaiah government of mishandling law enforcement amid a surge in communal violence across Dakshina Kannada and Kalaburagi districts.