Karnataka: BJP leader Umesh G Jadhav condemns murder of Congress corporator’s daughter

Kalaburagi (Karnataka) [India], April 21 (ANI): BJP MP and candidate from Kalaburagi Lok Sabha seat Umesh G Jadhav on Sunday condemned the murder of Congress corporator’s daughter Neha Hiremath in Hubballi and criticised Congress for politicizing the matter.

“This incident should not just be condemned by society, but by the entire 140 crore people. It’s quite unfortunate that some Karnataka Congress leaders are trying to give it some colour…A Congress corporator said that the party is attempting to give a different colour and hurting the soul of the deceased. Yesterday, in Karnataka’s Gulbarga a strike occurred and we sat on the road for 3-4 hours in order to condemn this incident,” Jadhav told ANI.

On Saturday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the murder of Congress corporator’s daughter Neha Hiremath in Hubballi is not a case of “love jihad” as alleged by the BJP.

The Chief Minister, while speaking to the media here, hit out at the BJP and accused the party of politicising the murder for politics.

Condemning the incident, the CM said, “This is not a case of love jihad. I condemn the incident. We have arrested the culprit, the investigation is going on seriously and we will punish the culprit. We have taken care of law and order seriously to maintain peace and harmony. BJP is using this issue for politics, it is condemnable that a political party (BJP) is using the murder of a girl for political purposes.”

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi claimed that the case is of ‘love jihad’, but the state government does not want to investigate.

“He (the deceased’s father) is a corporator. For vote bank politics, suppressing and hushing up is their (Congress) policy. This is all happening due to that…There is a ‘love jihad’ but they do not want to investigate that. The father himself is saying that this is being hushed up,” Joshi said on Saturday.

Neha (23), the daughter of Congress Councillor of Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Niranjan Hiremath, was stabbed to death on the campus of BVB College on Thursday. The accused, Fayaz Khondunaik, who fled the scene, was arrested by police subsequently.

Neha was a first-year MCA student and Fayaz was her former classmate.

The murder of Neha Hiremath, the daughter of a Congress corporator in Hubballi, has sparked political controversy. Demands for capital punishment for Fayaz, the accused, have led to protests across the state.