Five held for obstructing Bengaluru Asha worker as NRC enumerator

Bengaluru: City police has arrested five men for restraining an Asha worker from discharging Covid-19 duty and falsely accused her of collecting data for the National Register of Citizens (NRC), an official said on Friday.

"We have arrested five men for restraining Asha worker Krishnaveni from discharging Covid-19 duty and falsely accusing her of collecting data for the NRC," Bengaluru East Deputy Commissioner of Police S. D. Sharanappa told IANS.

The five men are Mustafa Bin Muhammad Sadique, 25, Suhel Basha Bin Basha, 30, Anwar Jabbar, 35, Sarfaraj Hadap Jabbbar 38 and Sagir Sharif Bin Iqbal, 40.

According to police, Sadique objected to Krishnaveni's work saying that she was collecting information for NRC though the Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha) were collecting the names and phone numbers of people for Covid-19.

"They were collecting details irrespective of community, whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian. They were collecting from everybody in their household survey," said Sharanappa.

But Sadique misinterpreted and linked their work to NRC which suddenly created a commotion and attracted a few more people raising the same clamour.

The accused said they will only share the names and numbers of the people with coronavirus symptoms and not everybody's details.

"There was no physical assault or manhandling. It is still under investigation and we are verifying," added Sharanappa.

He said the Asha workers have been provided protection to execute their work.

Krishnaveni made a video of her ordeal which went viral.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao tweeted, "Instances of health workers being assaulted and also creating obstruction are noted."

Rao warned stringent action and non-bailable criminal cases against people disrupting health workers.

He promised doctors and medical teams full protection.