Mysuru Police Arrests 4 Supermarket Employees Who Refused Entry To Northeast Students

The COVID-19 pandemic might have indirectly caused pollution levels to drop but it has also spiked cases of racism and discrimination in the country. People from the northeast of India are being rudely called “coronavirus” and one man even went so far as to spit gutkha on a woman from Manipur.

On March 28, the staff of More Megastore (Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road, Chamundipuram, Mysuru) refused entry to two engineering students from Nagaland as they were “not Indians”, reports The Hindu. In the video, they can be heard saying,

“We are Indians, we need groceries like you. We are human beings like you guys. You don’t accept it? We live here, we have an Aadhaar Card. How can you discriminate (against) us?”

Meanwhile in Karnataka, Naga migrants from Northeast India not allowed to buy food. Shameful. Racism in India is an everyday affair. pic.twitter.com/MPt0Eip4gi

— Dolly Kikon (@DollyKikon) March 29, 2020

News18 quoted one of the students saying,

“My friend and I went to buy groceries at around 6.10 pm on Saturday. We waited in the queue for about 25 minutes. We followed social distancing. But when our turn came to go in, we were stopped. The staff told us that we are not Indians and that they don’t allow foreigners. We tried to explain to them that we are from the northeast. We even showed them our Aadhaar cards. But they did not allow us to enter.”

People condemned the shameful incident and urged the authorities to take strict action against the accused.

This is very shameful nd disgusting,glad the culprits are caught nd will be punished! But such kind of racism should not be permitted in our society at any cost.

— Lotus (@LotusBharat) March 29, 2020

This is so shameful. Did someone step in and help? Did they manage to get provisions ?

— Gargi Rawat (@GargiRawat) March 29, 2020

🤦 NE people, my heart goes out for you. I can feel the pain, indian being discriminated on basis of ethnicity and race.

We Indians are morally corrupt.

— عبد الله (@kastokan) March 29, 2020

This is stupidity of the highest order. We dont know our own India. SHAME!!

— Gladiator Jeet (@djeetender) March 29, 2020

Unacceptable that the other so called educated guys were not intervening. Callous to say the least.

— Priyabrata Sahu (@freeoverthinker) March 29, 2020

According to Deccan Herald, after the video went viral on social media, City Police Commissioner Chandragupta confirmed that an FIR had been filed.

The Times of India further reported that after checking CCTV footage, cops arrested the 26-year-old store manager Avinash as well as three employees (Manjunath, 32, Naveen, 30, and Revanna, 30) for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc., wrongful restraint, public nuisance and disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant.

The retail chain issued this statement in response.

We deeply regret the unfortunate incident. Our staff is working under tremendous pressure & risks. The matter is now Sub-Judice & we are committed to fully co-operate with the Law Enforcement Authorities. Assure you that our organization does not discriminate on any grounds.

— More Retail Limited (@moreretailltd) March 29, 2020

This is the time for all of us to work together and fight the virus, the racial discrimination needs to stop.

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