Mangaluru: Mayor Kavitha Sanil took on skill-game centres and massage parlours head-on in the city during her one-year tenure ending March 7.
While taking this concerted action, she had a run in with the judiciary, leading to the high court issuing a notice to her, it also put Kavitha in the crosshairs of the underworld, who ‘politely’ reminded her to mind her own business and not pay undue attention to the functioning of these centres and parlours dotting the city.
While officially there was no word about these threat calls thus far–either from the Mangaluru City police top brass or Mangaluru City Corporation itself, Kavitha chose to make this revelation at her last official media briefing before demitting office on Wednesday.
“I received threat calls from the underworld asking me to steer clear of skill game centres and massage parlours, and reported the same to then city police commissioner M Chandra Sekhar,” she said.
Asserting that she did not flinch in face of such threats, Kavitha said she in turn reminded the callers they too had families, and that they did not appear out of thin air.
“Chandra Sekhar took note of the complaint and acted on numbers from which I received the calls,” she said, adding notwithstanding the calls, she was steadfast in her resolve to act against such centres and parlours. “If I had received support from officials, I could have addressed it effectively,” she added.
Kavitha, acting on complaints received from distressed mothers at her phone-in programme, that their children were going astray due to these skill-game centres and parlours, raided them in full media glare.
The owner of one of these parlour had in turn approached the high court, contending that their business was legitimate, and that the action taken by the mayor was mala fide. The high court in turn issued notices to the mayor and others, and stayed any action till further orders.