Image: Sridhar Kavali / The Hindu
In the last week of December Hosapete in Karnataka witnessed a denigrating hate crime. Hatred already persists among the living but when it crosses a line and disrespects the dead, it is then that one can say hatred has percolated too deep in the society.
More than 100 graves were razed in Kondanayakanahalli in Hospet, Vijayanagar district by some miscreants. Mohammed Ghouse, the president of the Muslim graveyard (Sunni) Additional Property of Masidi-e-Firdous which falls under the state Wakf Board, filed a complaint on December 26 with the rural police station. The police visited the site and inquiry has been initiated.
Ghouse told The Hindu that Muslim have been burying their dead at this graveyard since 1974. In 1980, the State government purchased the land from T. Appanna and further in 2007, the cemetery land was registered to the Muslim Graveyard (Sunni) Additional Property of Masjid-e-Firdous, which comes under the Karnataka State Wakf Board, reported The Hindu.
On December 25, Christmas night. Some unidentified persons entered the graveyard with JCB bulldozer and defaced over 100 tombstones.
Among other offences, this is a specific offence under section 297 of Indian penal Code which deals with the offence of trespassing on burial grounds etc., and states that if any person offers any indignity to any human corpse, or causes disturbance to any persons assembled for the performance of funeral ceremonies, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.
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