Mangaluru city police on Thursday registered an FIR against Sharan Pumpwell, the Provincial Joint Secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), for boycotting Muslim vendors and putting saffron flags at shops runs by Hindu vendors at the Mangaladevi temple in Mangaluru, officials familiar with the matter said.
The Mangaluru south police station sleuths booked Pumpwell and other VHP activists for urging Hindu community members to not buy items from shops run by Muslims vendors and make purchases from shops bearing saffron flags in Mangaladevi temple premises.
According to officials, the Mangaladevi temple committee, which is organising the Dasara festival fairs from October 15 to October 24, had allotted shops to only Hindu community vendors through auction, and denied the same to Muslim traders. Following this, the traders from Muslim community, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and like-minded organisations forum had opposed the move of the temple body and staged protest against this. Later, the temple committee agreed to allot shops to a few Muslim vendors.
This story was originally published in hindustantimes.com. Read the full story here .
