Spa therapist abuses delivery boy for speaking in Kannada, lands behind bars

Bengaluru: A 37-year-old massage therapist from Tripura was arrested for abusing Kannadigas and the Karnataka state when a delivery boy contacted him to deliver a parcel Thursday morning. The arrested individual has been identified as Mithun Sarkar, a resident of Begur Main Road in Hongasandra. Sarkar works for a salon and spa and has been providing home service for the last nine years.

According to Ranjith, 29, a resident of Begur and a delivery boy for a logistics firm, on Thursday, he collected parcels from the logistics office and called a few customers whose addresses were not properly mentioned on the parcels. One of the customers Ranjith called was Sarkar.

Speaking to TOI, Ranjith said, "When Sarkar received my call around 9.30am, I introduced myself to him and asked him to share the exact location of his house where the parcel was to be delivered. He replied to me in Hindi and started scolding me for speaking in Kannada. I spoke to him in Hindi and politely asked him to stop abusing me. But he continued to make abusive remarks about Kannadigas and Karnataka. He said, ‘If 70 per cent of Hindi people leave Karnataka, you will not have Rs 10 to buy tomatoes'. He further asked me to record his call and take his tower location." Following this, Ranjith shared the conversation with Kannada activists and later, lodged a complaint with the police.

A senior officer said an FIR has been registered under BNS sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).

Sarkar was arrested. During interrogation, it was found that Sarkar could speak Kannada fluently. He claimed he was angry with his employer as he was not paid his salary, and when he received a call from the complainant, he expressed his anger on him. He further claimed that he was drunk in the morning itself. Sarkar had ordered a t-shirt from an e-commerce platform.