Police Deny Protest Permit for Belthangady Rally

By Editor

Posted on October 26, 2025

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Police Deny Protest Permit in Belthangady

Mangaluru : Dakshina Kannada police have denied permission to the Rashtriya Hindu Jagaran Vedike to hold a protest in Belthangady on Monday.

The Vedike wanted to hold the protest to accuse the State government of booking unnecessary cases against activist Mahesh Shetty Thimarody.

Superintendent of Police K. Arun said in a statement on Sunday that permission was denied considering that the hearing of a writ petition filed by Mr. Thimarody challenging the Puttur Assistant Commissioner’s order externing him to Vijayapura district is pending before the High Court. If any protest is held in violation of the police instruction, legal action will be taken against the Vedike, he stated.

Background of Activist Mahesh Shetty Thimarody
Mr. Thimarody has been spearheading a campaign seeking justice for the 2012 rape-and-murder victim Soujanya.

It was in the houses of Mr. Thimarody and his brother that Chinnaiah, the complainant in the alleged case of mass burial of bodies in Dharmasthala, had stayed days before he was arrested on August 23 by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Dharmasthala case. Chinnaiah told SIT that, under the instructions of Mr. Thimarody and other activists, he had filed a false complaint about the mass burial.

Externment Proceedings and Criminal Cases
Mr. Thimarody was among the 36 people in the district against whom the police had initiated externment proceedings in June this year to maintain law and order. He is currently facing 20 criminal cases.

During the pendency of the proceedings, six more cases were registered against him after SIT took over the investigation of the mass burial case. Based on the report by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bantwal, Puttur Assistant Commissioner Stella Varghese passed an order on September 18 to extern him to Vijayapura district.

High Court Challenge
Mr. Thimarody filed the writ petition against the externment order, and Judge C.M. Poonacha on September 30 directed the government not to precipitate the matter till the next date of hearing.

During the hearing, the Additional Advocate General told the High Court that the externment order has not been given effect as it was not served to Mr. Thimarody since he was absconding. On October 13, the High Court reserved its order on the writ petition.