Bengaluru: Home Minister, R Ramalinga Reddy on Tuesday accused the BJP of stirring up communal trouble in Uttara Kannada district merely to win votes in the coming elections to the assembly.
Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, he charged the BJP with trying to disrupt the peace of the district in the name of Hindutva. "The coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have been already converted into a Hindutva laboratory and efforts are now on to extend this to other parts of the state. The BJP is leaving no stone unturned to create communal tension in the guise of holding yatras," he charged, accusing Union Minister, Ananth Kumar Hegde and Member of Parliament, Pratap Simha of instigating innocent people through their hate speeches.
"In the last two months the BJP has tried to breach law and order at eight places. It started from Belthangadi and extended to Mangaluru, Udupi, Hunsur, Honnavara and Kumta. Today they resorted to violence in Sirsi in the name of seeking justice for Paresh Mesta, a teen found dead under mysterious circumstances in Honnavara two days after the communal tension in that town," the Minister said, warning that the police had been strictly instructed to deal strongly with anyone, who tried to disturb law and order.
"They (BJP) are wrong if they think that they can win the Assembly polls by whipping up communal feelings among people. The peace loving people of the state will reject it lock, stock and barrel if it continues to disturb law and order in the state," he asserted.
Replying to a question, Mr Reddy said the government would take a call on referring Paresh Mesta's death to the National Investigative Agency (NIA) if there was evidence of foul play in the postmortem report. As of now, the case was being investigated by the Uttara Kannada district police.
