Mysuru (Karnataka): Condemning Amulya Leona for shouting “Pakistan Zindabad” at an anti-CAA rally in Bengaluru, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Friday alleged that the college student activist had links with Maoists.
Amulya’s father Oswald Naronha, however, denied the charge and called for an inquiry into it.
“As Amulya’s links with Naxalites (Maoists) were proved in an investigation by the state police, she must be punished and action will also be taken against the people behind her,” Yediyurappa said at Mysuru, about 150 kms west of Bengaluru in the southern state.
Asserting that the incident (shouting pro-Pakistan slogans) was a conspiracy to disturb peace and harmony in the state, the Chief Minister said legal action would also be taken against the organisers of Thursday’s anti-Citizenship Amendment Act rally.
The Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Issai Federation organised the anti-CAA, anti-NRC (National Register of Citizens) and anti-NPR (National Population Register) rally at Freedom Park in Bengaluru.
AIMIM president and Lok Sabha MP Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi and leaders of different faiths participated in the event held amid security.
“Unless action is taken against organisations provoking the people to make such comments, it is not possible to control them,” reiterated Yediyurappa in Kannada.
Amulya, 19, was arrested and sent to Bengaluru jail on a 14-day remand earlier in the day for interrogation and investigation into the sedition case the police filed against her suo moto after she was whisked away by the police.
Distancing himself from Amulya’s pro-Pakistan slogan, her father said he did not know of his daughter’s links with Maoists or any sympathy for them.
“I have no idea about her involvement with Maoists as she went to Bengaluru over a year ago for studying BA after schooling in Chikkamgaluru,” Naronha told a local news channel from his home at Kaap in the southwest district, about 320 kms from Bengaluru.
