Police officials including the Mangaluru city Commissioner of Police P S Harsha would be summoned to appear before the panel conducting a magisterial probe into December 19, 2019 firing on anti-CAA protesters in the city which left two people dead.
Notices would be served to 176 police officers and staff to appear for the hearing, Udupi deputy commissioner G Jagadeesha, conducting the magisterial probe into the incident said on Thursday. He told reporters that officials, including the city police commissioner Harsha, would be summoned to depose on the violence which led to police firing that killed two people.
Mangaluru (North) Assistant Commissioner K U Belliappa, who is the nodal officer for the police department, has given a list of 176 policemen who are ready to cite evidence in the hearing.
The police officers would be summoned in phases. The next hearing is on February 25. He said so far, 203 members of the public have deposed before him on the incident. Former city Mayor K Ashraf, who is under treatment in hospital, has also provided a written statement.
The remaining members of the public can provide evidence during the next hearings, he said. On December 19, two people were killed in police firing as protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) turned violent.
The protesters had attempted to besiege the Mangaluru North police station and tried to attack police personnel, following which force was used to disperse them, police had said. Two people received bullet injuries in the firing and they later succumbed at a hospital, the police had said.
However, the High Court of Karnataka granted bail to 21 people, who were among those arrested in connection with a case registered for unlawful assembly, causing damage to public property and attempt to set fire to a police station during protests against CAA on December 19.