The police in the state had on different occasions showed their varying hues. But never before had they so openly flaunted the saffron tinge in them. The official website of the Dakshina Kannada district police (www.dkpolice.org) displayed a collage of pictures which appeared to extol the virtues of the RSS on its home page. The collage showed RSS volunteers in trademark khaki shorts marching in order and engaging in social activities.

Administrative arms of the government are supposed to be secular, but the pictures suggested otherwise and caused alarm; especially since Mangalore, the district headquarters, has time and again been ravaged by communal strifes. The Hindu activists there are prone to attacking pubs and churches.

The DK police are probably the first unit in the state to use the Internet as a tool to build a connect between them and the public. B Dayananda, a former superintendent of police (SP), had launched a blog (spdk.blogspot.com). The official website was launched in 2009, and is being revamped by Abhishek Goyal, the current SP.

The collage had been on the website for more than a year and saw more than 2 lakh visitors. But when contacted, Goyal said, “I am unaware of this. It’s a bad mistake. The website is still in the process of being revamped.

The developers, Hyderabad-based Zest Wings, are doing it free of cost and must have used random pictures for testing. We will take immediate action.” Within minutes, the entire site was pulled down and replaced by a single page which bore the message ‘This site is under construction’.

Pratap Reddy, the inspector general of police (Western range) was unavailable for comment, but AR Infant, the in-charge DG&IGP of the state, said he was unaware of the images. “Police department websites are meant for the department and the public,” Infant said. “I was unaware of it. I will look into it and speak to officers concerned.”

- hemanth kashyap & deepthi shridhar