At least 11 children fell sick after drinking poisoned water at a government school in the state of Karnataka, India.
Three people, including a local leader of the Hindu right-wing group Sri Ram Sene, were arrested for allegedly planning the poisoning to get the Muslim headmaster removed and create communal tension.
The children were taken to the hospital, and all of them recovered.
Highlights
- At least 11 children fell ill after drinking poisoned water at a government school in Karnataka, India.
- Three men, including Sri Ram Sene leader Sagar Patil, were arrested for poisoning water to frame the Muslim headmaster and stir communal tension.
- Sri Ram Sene pressured Krishna Madar to poison the water, threatening to expose his interfaith relationship if he refused to cooperate.
Eleven children fell sick in an Indian school after a right-wing group allegedly poisoned their water
Image credits: Sandeep Rasal/Getty Images
Belagavi Police Superintendent Bheemashankar S. Guled said the poisoning was a planned act by Sagar Patil, the local Sri Ram Sene leader, along with two others, Naganagouda Patil and Krishna Madar.
Investigators said they wanted to frame the school’s Muslim headmaster, Suleman Gorinaik, and push for his transfer.
Police said Sagar Patil and Naganagouda Patil pressured Krishna Madar, a local man in an interfaith relationship with a girl from another community, to poison the water.
They allegedly threatened to expose his relationship if he didn’t cooperate.
Madar then bought three kinds of insecticides and mixed them into a juice packet. He gave the packet to a student and persuaded the boy to pour it into the school’s water tank.
The school was in Hoolikatti village, Belagavi district in Karnataka.
“We utilized scientific evidence and student interactions to solve this case. This was a planned, deeply disturbing attempt motivated by communal hatred,” Guled told The Indian Express.
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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah called the incident a “heinous act driven by religious fundamentalism and hatred.”
“Many children fell ill in this incident that took place 15 days ago,” he said in a social media post Sunday. “Fortunately, no one was killed.”
“This incident, which could have led to the massacre of small children, is proof that religious fundamentalism and communal hatred can lead to any heinous act. I cannot believe it even at this moment,” he said.
Siddaramaiah, who is from the Congress party, criticized Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing its leaders of spreading division using religion.
“Let the BJP leaders, who sow hatred in society in the name of religion and cook their political rice, do some self-criticism,” he said.
The Karnataka chief minister called the incident a ‘heinous act driven by religious fundamentalism’
Image credits: Siddaramaiah/X
He added that the state government had formed a task force to prevent hate speech and communal violence. He urged the public to remain alert and report such threats.
“For all our efforts to bear fruit, the public should also raise their voice against such forces, resist them, and file complaints. Congratulations to the police personnel who broke the evil plan of carrying out the massacre of children,” he said.
Muslim organizations in Karnataka have now demanded a ban on Sri Ram Sene. They submitted a formal request to the government through the Belagavi deputy commissioner’s office.
The Sri Ram Sene group has been involved in several violent or provocative incidents in the past.
In 2009, 40 Sri Ram Sene members attacked a group of young men and women at a bar in Karnataka because they believed the women were violating “traditional Indian values” by drinking and socializing in public. Two women were hospitalized due to the assault.
In 2018, a Karnataka court acquitted 25 of the accused, citing lack of evidence.
In 2012, six members of the group were arrested after they hoisted Pakistan’s national flag on a government building in a small town in southern Karnataka—an incident that led to the mob pelting stones on vehicles and protesting.
According to The Hindu, the group blamed the flag being hoisted on the Muslim community. An investigation into the event found the six men guilty.