CM, home minister 'have no clue' on MLA's whereabouts

Congress member Vijayananda Kashappanavar was nowhere to be seen in the Assembly on Friday too.

However, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister K J George did not have anything to say about the MLA going missing.

George, while making a statement regarding the Skyye bar incident in Bangalore on Wednesday, did not make any comment on whether Kashappanavar was at fault.

But Siddaramaiah went on the offensive against the BJP, by loudly saying that it had no moral right to demand any action against Kashappanavar.

The chief minister said the Opposition cannot expect action to be taken against the MLA, just a day after the First Information Report (FIR) is filed.

“They (BJP) were accused of rapes, watching blue films etc. Their former MLA Raghupathi Bhat’s wife was missing, but did the BJP act? The BJP has no other issue to raise in this session. It is thus trying to gain political mileage from these protests,” said Siddaramaiah.

He said, “Within hours of the MLA allegedly assaulting the police, the constables lodged a complaint with the Cubbon Park police station.

The BJP raised the issue on July 3, and we were ready with the response on Friday, though rules expect us to give a reply within three days after a matter is raised in the legislature. We are ready with a response within 24 hours. Where is the question of delay?” he said.

Siddaramaiah accused the BJP of never allowing a full-fledged legislature session.
“The issue (Kashappanavar) raised is a small one. There is no basis to this protest,” he said.

On being questioned about the government delaying the process of taking action against Kashappanavar, so as to facilitate anticipatory bail for him, Siddaramaiah said, “I have read the police report. The sections under which the cases were booked against the MLA are 323, 143, 504, 353 and 149 of the IPC. All these are bailable offences. Why would we delay the process then?” he asked.

Not contacted CM

The chief minister said that the MLA has not contacted him since the incident and he did not know where Kashappanavar is.

“All I can say is the entire protest has been orchestrated by the BJP with political motivation and to seek publicity,” he said.

Reading out a brief written statement in the Council, the Home Minister said senior police officers would conduct a fair probe into the case and take action as per rules.

However, he did not respond to the demand by the BJP to arrest the MLA under the Goonda Act, for allegedly assaulting two police constables for carrying out their duty.

He did not reveal the current status of the case.

“The government has been facilitating the police to do their work smoothly. Nothing has been done so as to demoralise the police force,” he said in reply to the matter raised by the BJP.

Explaining the circumstances leading to the incident, George said two constables, Kiran Kumar and Prashant Naik, took objection to the Skyye bar and restaurant at UB City being kept open at 1.05 am Wednesday early morning, with seven to eight people consuming liquor.

When the constable tried to videograph the bar on his mobile phone, people who were consuming liquor tried to snatch the device and assaulted them.

The two constables filed a complaint at Cubbon Park police station and named Kashappanavar, rowdy sheeter Somegowda and others as the assaulters, George said.