“BJP sees this as opportunity to divide society”: Congress’ Priyank Kharge on Hubbali-murder case

Kalaburgi (Karnataka) [India], April 22 (ANI): Assuring that strict action will be taken in the Hubbali murder case, Karnataka minister and Congress leader Priyank Kharge said on Monday that the state government has taken the necessary steps as per the law and the process of investigation has started.

Kharge told ANI that the BJP is dividing society on the matter.

“We have already taken whatever steps need to be taken as per the law of the land. Now quite naturally, the BJP sees this as an opportunity to divide society and that’s what they’re good at doing. We have made all the necessary arrests. We have started the process of investigation and no doubt we will take the most stringent action,” he said.

Priyank Kharge also accused the BJP of politicising the incident during election times.

“If this gruesome incident had happened elsewhere in any part of the BJP rule state, would the rules have changed? No. But the BJP wants to politicise this during the elections. We are completely with the family of Neha. We understand the pain that their family is going through and we are doing all within our capacity to ensure that justice will be delivered as soon as possible. Let us see what the preliminary investigations come up with and what the initial investigations reveal,” he added.

The Congress leader also questioned JP Nadda, who recently visited the victim’s family and asked, “When is he going to visit the other victim’s family?”

“JP Nadda visited the victim’s family, which is very good. But when is he going to visit the other victim’s family? Recently in Bengaluru, there were gruesome double murders in JP Nagar and there is also one POCSO case against a very senior BJP leader. Why doesn’t he speak about that also? They don’t know how difficult it is to keep the secular fabric of society intact. They have always believed in doing such things. we try to unite India, they try to break it,” Kharge said.

Meanwhile, the BJP and Muslim organisations have called a state-wide bandh today over the Hubbali murder incident.

The Bharatiya Janata Party demanded a CBI probe into the murder of the daughter of a Congress councillor in Karnataka, who was stabbed to death on the campus of BVB College last week. The BJP has alleged that police are trying to “divert” the case.

Niranjan Hiremath, the father of the murdered girl in Hubballi has demanded a CBI investigation into the incident. He also demanded that the police commissioner in charge of the case be transferred for alleged “negligence”.

The murder of Karnataka college student Neha Hiremath by her former classmate Fayaz has triggered a political row, with the BJP terming it a case of ‘love jihad’, while the Congress party has denied the allegation. Demands for capital punishment for Fayaz, the accused, have led to protests across the state.