Mangaluru, Jul 10: District in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai said that the recent murders of Sharath and Ashraf were not just a result of communal disturbances, but were definitely planned murders.
“The killers need to be punished and I have been trying to everything possible by law for the same,” said Mr Rai addressing media persons in the city on Monday.
He said that he does not want to see the innocent people of the district suffer, and hence he was calling for a peace-meet with all the elected representatives of the region on Thursday.
“Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced a compensation for the families of Sharath and Ashraf. He had a meeting in Bengaluru with officials to decide what to do next about the communal disturbances,” he said. He asked the people not to believe Whatsapp messages and baseless news and create further violence in the region.
Mr Rai said that BJP leaders Sadananda Gowda and Shobha Karandlaje were baselessly blaming him and U T Khader for the murders and the happenings of the recent past.
“All they can think of is how to get more votes out of the suffering of innocent people. I have said this in front of the Kukke Subrahmanya temple and will repeat that God will get the real culprits caught. Congress has always been secular and we will do what is necessary to restore peace,” he said.
“They say Rai’s speeches are provocative. But people have been murdered and stone pelting incidents have taken place even before I said anything,” he said.
The government had clamped Section 144 of CrPC in entire region, and yet they (Sangh Parivar) took the body of Sharath in a procession from Mangaluru to Bantwal, he lamented. “We could have done the same when Ashraf was killed. But all we wanted was justice and not publicity,” he said.
He also criticized RSS leader Prabhakar Bhat for turning the protest meet against Sharath’s murder into a celebration in BC Road.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader said that BJP leaders are probably blaming them just to keep their positions intact within their party.
“It is not nice when a person in a responsible position speaks irresponsibly like this. Shobha Karandlaje mocked that imposition of section 144 had been withdrawn for the chief minister’s program in Adyar Garden. Did she not know that the section had not been imposed within city limits? All they ever do is try to get political benefit out of anything that happens,” he said.
He further lamented that PFI blamed Mr Rai and him when Ashraf was murdered and even now they were being blamed unnecessarily. “We do not want to give any importance to what is being said about us. We just want the people of the district to be safe,” he said.
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