Cong lodges complaint, seeks arrest of Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, CT Ravi for provocative remarks

PTI, Apr 7, 2022, 1:23 PM IST

The Karnataka Congress on Wednesday lodged a police complaint seeking the arrest of state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra and BJP National General Secretary C.T. Ravi for the communally provocative remarks made by them in connection with a youth’s murder in Bengaluru.

A delegation of Congress members lodged the complaint with the Malleshwaram Police station. The complaint states that the remarks were intended to paint the whole of the Muslim community in bad colour.

On Wednesday, Jnanendra stoked a controversy after he claimed that the recent murder of Chandru, 22, was because he did know Urdu. BJP MLA C.T. Ravi had also jumped the gun on the issue that Chandru was hacked to death for speaking in Kannada. Condemning the killing, Ravi said that the incident should not be seen in isolation and there are provocations behind such a mindset. “Congress leaders won’t shed any tears if a Hindu is killed and Opposition leader Siddaramaiah won’t pay condolences if the victim is a Hindu,” he added.

Meanwhile, Araga later retracted it by stating that the incident was actually over road rage and apologised for his statements.

Their remarks evoked sharp reactions from opposition parties with former chief minister Siddaramaiah calling Araga an inefficient minister. “He had given statements like this in the murder case of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha and Mysuru gang-rape case. He is not able to maintain the portfolio. It is unfortunate that such a person is our home minister.

“Initially, he stated that Harsha had criminal cases against him and later denied it. In Mysuru gang-rape case, he had said that why women should come out during odd hours to isolated places,” Siddaramaiah said.

Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy stated that the Home Minister is not serious about his job. “He had used the word ‘Dalit’ instead of ‘Hindu’. This is a trivial statement. He has started to carry out political agenda in murders also in the state,” he said.