BENGALURU: A city-based woman advocate smeared Kannada writer and rationalist KS Bhagwan’s face with black paint inside the City Civil Court Complex near Mysore Bank Circle on Thursday.
The incident took place soon after the 76-year-old writer stepped out of a court hall and walked towards the entrance when advocate Meera Raghavendra blocked his path and blackened his face. “You’ve grown so old and yet you abuse god and religion. Shame on you,” she shouted after the incident.
Bhagwan immediately asked police accompanying him to arrest her. As cops walked towards Meera, she said, “Arrest me. I’m ready for everything.” As male cops announced they have to detain her for the act, Meera asked them to send women police to detain her before walking away. Cops said they will serve a notice on Meera to appear before them for questioning by Friday.
Advocate threatened to get me killed: Writer
We will direct her to appear before investigation. We will then decide the future course of action,” he added. Condemning the attack, Kannada and culture minister Aravind Limbavali said, “Difference of opinion will always be there. But it is wrong to attack someone physically.”
The veteran writer later went to the jurisdictional Ulsoorgate police station and filed a complaint, and said she shouted that she would “get me killed before I reached Mysuru”.
“I was provided security by the government after journalist Gauri Lankesh was killed and it was found that plans were made to kill me too,” he said in the complaint, adding he appeared before II ACMM court to attend the hearing in a private complaint case. “A woman advocate, identified as Meera Raghavendra, had filed another private complaint against me in the same court hall. After completing court work, I came out of the hall around 12.30pm when Meera Raghavendra attacked me and daubed black paint on my face. She shouted that she will get me killed. She was recording her act on a mobile phone that was apparently beaming the act live on Facebook...,” his complaint read.
Based on his complaint, police booked Meera under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (act with criminal intimidation).