A case of wanton provocation and hurting of religious sentiments has been registered against controversial Kannada author and rationalist K S Bhagawan by police in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka on the basis of a complaint filed against certain remarks made regarding Hindu gods Rama and Krishna by the author at a recent event in Bengaluru. Following the registration of the case the matter was transferred to the Bengaluru police for investigations.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (central division) Sandeep Patil said that police in central Bengaluru have taken up the case for further investigations after it was transferred from the Beltangady police station in Dakshina Kannada.

“A case has been registered against Bhagawan under the provision of Indian Penal Code sections 153 (wanton provocation with intent to cause riot) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class),” DCP Patil said.

Police said that the case was registered against Bhagawan on the basis of a complaint by a person identified as Shyam Sudarshan Bhat who alleged that the author, in a speech at an event at the Gandhi Bhavan in Bengaluru last week, disparaged the gods Rama and Krishna by saying they were not born to their fathers and hence not worthy of worship. The comments had hurts the sentiments of a large section of society the complaint has stated.

The author Bhagawan was earlier targeted by right wing activists in February this year for an alleged speech in Mysuru where he said he would burn a few pages of the Bhagavad Gita which defames women, vaishyas and shudras by describing them as sinners. He also received threats on social media soon after the killing of Kannada scholar and researcher MM Kalburgi in Dharwad on August 30.

Bhagawan received more than 20 threatening calls this past week after he was selected for a lifetime achievement award for the year 2013 by the Karnataka Sahitya Academy.

Meanwhile police in Bengaluru have arrested a 45- year old hostel warden cum priest from Hubballi in North Karnataka for allegedly threatening the Karnataka Sahitya Academy staff for selecting Bhagawan for the honorary award. “The SJ Park police registered a case based on a complaint lodged by the registrar of the academy. The police have arrested the accused person Raghunath Tantri from Hubballi.

He called the academy office and threatened them,” DCP Sandeep Patil said.

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