HDK questions Araga Jnanendra’s visit to Gujarat during Santro Ravi’s arrest

Team Udayavani, Jan 15, 2023, 9:48 AM IST

Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister of Karnataka HD Kumaraswamy raised suspicion about Home Minister Araga Jnanendra’s presence in Ahmedabad around the time when the alleged Kingpin of human trafficking Santro Ravi was nabbed.

Karnataka Police on Friday arrested Santro Ravi, an accused in dozens of cases including human trafficking.

According to the police, Ravi was arrested from Gujarat after he fled from Karnataka.

The cases registered against him pertaining to money transfer, fraud, and money lending, police said.

Additional Director General of Police, Alok Kumar said that Ravi had escaped from the police and went into hiding in Gujarat, following which the police had ordered the formation of investigation teams under the leadership of senior police officers for his arrest.

Earlier on Friday the Janata Dal-Secular leader Kumaraswamy also reacted to Santro Ravi’s arrest from Gujarat.

He alleged that state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra “might have taken” Santro Ravi, an alleged human trafficking kingpin, to Gujarat to “safeguard” him.

“Let’s see what’s next. Now after the arrest of Santro Ravi some names should come out. In my opinion, who took him to Gujarat and Rajasthan? Who took him there? Who allowed him to go there from the Karnataka border? How was it possible to go at this situation? How did he go there? I feel that the home minister might have gone with him to safeguard him,” Kumaraswamy said.

Calling the entire episode “pre-planned”, the JDS leader alleged that there is some “secret” behind the arrest of Ravi from Gujarat as both the states are BJP-ruled.

“I don’t know, let everything come out. They might have taken him to safeguard him. It looks like it was preplanned, there is a BJP here in Karnataka and there in Gujarat, there is some secret in his arrest,” he said on Friday.

(With ANI inputs)