MANGALURU: Mangaluru City Police arrested a  group of Hindu vigilantes, allegedly activists of Sri Rama Sene, who barged in to St Thomas Aided Higher Primary School at Padu Bodanthila under Mangaluru rural police station limits on Saturday.

Initially, it was reported that no complaint has been lodged against the miscreants but later, school's headmaster Melwyn filed a case wherein he had stated that more than 30 persons had forcibly entered the classroom, tore off the book and then threatened the teacher.

While three persons were arrested on charges of trespassing and preventing a government official from discharging their duties on Sunday, the 13 more persons were arrested on Monday, taking the total number of arrests in this case to 16.

City police chief M Chandra Sekhar said the cops arrested Mukesh, Ravi, Chethan, Nithin, Kishore, Sunil, Nithin, Rajesh, Ravi, Raghavendra, Jayanth, Prakash, and Chandrahas along with Nithin, Dinesh and Santhosh a day earlier.

The incident has drawn widespread condemnation from various sides. Dinesh Bondanthila, secretary, DYFI Vamanjoor area committee, while condemning the incident said the school was teaching Arabic to students on their interest and not otherwise. Ivan D'Souza, chief whip of the ruling Congress in the State Legislative Council visited the school and requested the city police to deal with the miscreants in a tough manner.