Three college students booked for bursting petrol bomb for social media reels

HASSAN: Three college stuents were booked under the Karnataka Police Act for bursting a petrol bomb close to a petroleum tanker near a petroleum company terminal here and uploading the video on Instagram. The trio was produced before a court and ordered to pay up a fine.

Lokakiran of Hassan, Adarsh M of K R Pet and Jitendra of Kunigal are students of the Rajeev Ayurveda College at Bommanayakanahalli on the outskirts of Hassan. On the night of November 12, they put some petrol in a plastic bag, tied it up with a rope, then placed a firecracker on top of it and lit it close to a petroleum tanker parked outside a Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd terminal in the KIADB industrial area and exploded it.

The students later uploaded the video of the blast on Instagram. The police registered a case against the trio under the Karnataka Police Act after the video went viral on social media. As it was night time, there were no public movement and hence, no loss of life or property.

“In the viral video, three youths can be seen carrying out a blast with petrol and firecrackers for Deepavali wishes. The trio are final-year students and since they created public nuisance and to deter them from such activity, we registered a case under the Karnataka Police Act and produced them before a court”, Hassan Police Superintendent Mohammed Sujeetha said.