In a chilling case of human barbarism, the body of a poor 21 years old boy was recovered from a lake in Honnavar town of Karnataka. It was reported that body which was recovered on Friday contained signs of extreme torture like being burnt, mutilated and castrated.
As per media reports, the boy named Paresh Mesta was most likely trying to escape stone pelting that erupted after a fight between a motorbike and an auto rickshaw driver turned into communal violence. Paresh went missing on Wednesday night.
After his body was recovered, police claimed that the boy had accidentally drowned in the lake while escaping the mob. This has been rubbished by his family members who stated that he was an expert swimmer and belonged to the fishermen community. The mutilation of his body too was cited as reason for this not being a death due to drowning.
On Friday, hundreds including union minister and BJP leader Anantkumar Hegde thronged to join Paresh’s funeral procession:
“A complaint has been filed that five people – Imtiaz, Azad, Amir, Salim and Asif – were involved in Paresh’s murder,” Honnavar BJP president Subraya Nayak said.
The postmortem of the body was conducted in the government hospital in Honnavar, and the reasons behind the death was yet to be ascertained, the Times of India report claims, but the SP of that area dubbed it as a ‘normal death’.
Many were shocked by this incident and people registered their protest on Twitter:
Body found castrated, mutilated, and charred with boiling oil but Karnataka police think it’s a normal death: https://t.co/xUK7hOtNxe | Normal where, Somme in 1916?!
— Jaideep A. Prabhu (@orsoraggiante) December 11, 2017
Who killed Paresh Mesta? Karnataka CM wont be ordering a SIT probe into this m sure. Hindu lives don’t matterhttps://t.co/jEof07DiUE
— Ashu?? (@muglikar_) December 11, 2017
Paresh Mesta’s body was castrated, burnt and his head was mutilated with a sword
Now read this article by Deccan Chronicle and count the number of times words like BJP, Hindutva & Saffron are used. Interestingly, there are minimal discussions on Culprits. Say Hi to Secularism pic.twitter.com/Z7Ji6qcFQ1
— Rahul Raj (@bhak_sala) December 11, 2017
A few called for the organisation of a protest march:
Can we gather together for Paresh Mesta on this weekend in Pune
— Petyr Baelish (@doubtinggaurav) December 11, 2017
People in Mumbai, if there is a silent placard rally organized in Mumbai for Paresh Mesta, how many would be willing to participate and urge Karnataka government to do justice. Ideally, people in Bangalore organizing it will be better https://t.co/S89nTbNoz1
— Vishakha Joshi (@VishakhaJ18) December 11, 2017
Recently the nation witnessed another brutal murder where a Muslim man was burnt to death over allegations that he committed love jihad with the accused’s sister. This incident resulted in a tremendous outrage, which also included Asaduddin Owaisi questioning PM Modi’s silence over this matter. The same section of commentariat and ‘activists’ has been found to be silent over this issue.
Latest reports suggest that there have been some violent protests in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka over the allegations of murder being covered up by the state police.