‘Is Namma Bengaluru Safe?’: Actor Harshika Poonacha Attacked By Group of Men For Speaking In Kannada

Kannada film actress Harshika Poonacha alleged on Friday that she and her family were attacked by a mob for speaking in Kannada, sparking a fierce social media debate over what she described as a “traumatising experience”.

Poonacha was allegedly returning from a restaurant on Mosque Road in Frazer town’s Pulikeshi Nagar after a causal dinner when a group of men surrounded their vehicle and attacked them for speaking in Kannada. One of them even tried to snatch her husband’s gold chain.

Urging Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to ensure strict police action against the group of men, Poonacha questioned the law-and-order situation in the city asking, “1. Are we living in PAKISTAN or AFGANISTAN?? 2. Is it wrong to use my language Kannada & get abused for it in my own city??? 3. How really safe are we in our own city ? 4. Being born & brought up here in Namma Bengaluru should we turn a blind eye into such incidents which lead to such long term mental trauma?”

In a series of posts, the actor described the series of events. She also posted visuals from the fateful night.

According to her posts, after completing dinner, the actor and her family received their vehicle from valet parking and when they were about to move out, two men suddenly came up near the driver seat window and started arguing that the vehicle was huge and if moved,  it could hurt them.

The actor’s husband, who was driving the car, ignored their actions for some time, saying “innu move maadilwalla side bidi (we haven’t moved at all, please move aside now).

As her husband tried moving the car, two men started abusing him and her family in their language (a mix of Hindi, Urdu, and broken Kannada).

However, a gang of 20 to 30 men gathered and two of them grabbed her husband’s gold chain and pulled it off his neck in a skilled manner. However, he managed to grab it and hand it to the actor.

The men, who were agitated because the actor and her family were speaking in Kannada, kept saying “keep your “Kannada style” to yourself”. As she tried to call the police, the men vanished in thin air within a few moments.

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