College student beaten up for waving Karnataka flag during fest

Belagavi: A college student was beaten up in Karnataka’s Belagavi on Thursday for waving a state’s flag during an inter-college festival.

The incident occurred amid the ongoing territorial dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra.

A video clip of the incident has gone viral on social media sites as it shows one student of Gogte College of Commerce in Belagavi being attacked by a group of students for waving a Karnataka state flag during a dance competition of the fest.

However, there is no official statement from the police or college administration of why the student was attacked.

Following the attack, pro-Kannada outfits gathered in Belagavi and held a protest demanding action against the attackers.

Various reports quoting the victim student said that police also abused him when he sought to file a complaint.

“Soon after I went to the police (but) was abused and they asked me to study well instead of involving myself in such things. They also threatened me (saying) my future will be spoiled if I get involved in brawls and file complaints,” one of the reports quoted the victim student as saying.

However, police have denied allegations of abusing the student. Pertinently, no arrests have been made yet and students have been asked to not aggravate the issue.