Mangaluru: Nalin Kumar Kateel faces Congress plaint over his fiery speech

Mangaluru: Following Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel’s controversial statement, Congress and Communist leaders have lodged a complaint with police demanding legal action against the BJP MP.

On Sunday, a protest was organised by the BJP demanding that the administration arrest the murderers of Karthik Raj, who was killed by unidentified miscreants about two months ago. During the protest, Mr Kateel had demanded that the assailants be arrested at the earliest failing which the district would be ‘set on fire.’ This statement had attracted criticism from opposition parties including Congress and CPI (M).

CPI(M) leader Jeevanraj Kuttar and Congress Ullal Block president Santhosh Shetty on Monday filed a complaint with the police. However, police are yet to file a case in this regard.

AICC member P.V. Mohan too condemned the statement of the MP. “He is a MP and lawmaker. How can we expect such statements from a MP? His statement reveals the hidden agenda of the Sangh Parivar,” Mohan alleged. He demanded that the MP should immediately seek an apology from the people of the district.

He however agreed that the Congress party need to ensure that law and order is maintained in the region. “There have been some incidents of crime leading to law and order problems in Ullal in the past 2-3 months. Our party has to concentrate on maintaining peace,” he added.

Youth Congress president Mithun Rai told reporters that if BJP set fire to the district, Congress would douse it. Meanwhile Nalin Kumar Kateel clarified that his statement was not intended to create law and order problems. “I was speaking about the anger among the people. While speaking, I might not have used the right word. I did not mean to create problems,” Kateel clarified in the statement.