Kannada actress Harshika Poonacha attacked by mob in Bengaluru, urges K'taka CM to act

Bengaluru, April 20: Popular Kannada actress Harshika Poonacha said on Friday that she is afraid to step outside in the streets of Bengaluru after her family was attacked by a mob for speaking in Kannada and appealed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Karnataka Police to take strict action against the miscreants involved in the incident.

Senior BJP leader and Opposition leader, R. Ashoka, on Friday criticised the Congress government over the incident and said that "politics of appeasement" is leading to such incidents in the state.

The actress had posted a video of the entire incident and said that she will raise her voice for other women or families facing such similar incidents in the state.

A mob of 20 to 30 persons said that they have to teach a lesson to those who speak in Kannada language, Harshika said.

"No one has the right to create ruckus with the people who are peacefully conducting themselves. After going through the trauma it occurred to me that whether we are living in countries like Pakistan or Afghanistan? Is it wrong to speak in the local Kannada language? How safe are we in our city? Do I have to hush up this incident which is going to cause trauma for a long period?" she asked.

Her social media post said, "Dear all, after a lot of thought I have decided to share a horrifying experience I had in Namma Bengaluru a couple of days ago."

"I was having a casual dinner with my family on a late evening in a restaurant called "Karama" in the Mosque Road, Pulikeshi Nagar near Frazer town area a couple of days ago in Bengaluru. When we were about to move out of the restaurant, two men suddenly appeared near the driver's seat window and started arguing that the vehicle is very big and if moved suddenly it could touch them," she added.

"They (the mob) were saying these Kannada people should be taught a lesson and even tried to hit my husband on the face. Within a few minutes a mob of 20 to 30 members of the same gang gathered and two of them grabbed my husband's gold chain and snatched it so hard that it came off and then they tried pulling it towards them in a very skilled manner. My husband realised this on time and quickly held on to it and gave it to me," Harshika said.

"By this time this entire mob was so agitated that they could not get their hands on the gold chain and other valuables that they started damaging my vehicle and trying to physically abuse me and my husband by saying made up things like we scolded them and that did not even make sense to us or anybody around. My husband did not react because there were women and family in our vehicle," she added.

"After I made an emergency call to the Police Inspector whom we knew, the mob disappeared. We saw the police beat the vehicle and explained our ordeal to Assistant Sub-Inspector Umesh. He did not show any interest and asked us to speak to senior police officers," she said.