‘Kidnapped’ Cong MLA Shrimant Patil says he’s unwell

Kagwad Congress legislator Shrimant Patil, who is said to have been “kidnapped” by BJP, informed Legislative Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar on Friday that he is really undergoing treatment at a Mumbai hospital. Thus, he rubbished claims that he was abducted.

Home Minister M B Patil told the Assembly that a team of Karnataka police was denied entry into the hospital where the Kagwad legislator has been admitted.

During the Assembly session, Kumar read an email his office had received from the legislator who went “missing” from the resort where he was kept with other Congress MLAs.

Kumar read out his email aloud: "I (Shrimant Patil) left the resort to go to Chennai for urgent personal work. There, I started shivering all of a sudden and developed chest pain. I contacted my family doctor in Mumbai and got myself admitted there. There is no malice behind this. Since I had to inform you immediately, I wrote to you on a blank paper. If it was pre-planned, I’d have carried my letter pad with me."

The Congress, on Thursday, had created a ruckus in the Assembly accusing the BJP of "kidnapping" Patil.

Patil has also informed the Speaker that he will not attend the remainder of the Assembly session. “He has sought my permission for a leave of absence saying he can’t attend the rest of the session. I will decide in my office on this,” Kumar said.

The home minister, in his report, said the police had contacted the MLA’s family members. “They told our police that he went voluntarily. But at the hospital, our police weren’t allowed to meet him,” the minister said.

Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar said the party has failed to protect its legislators amid speculation that they have been poached by the BJP. A dozen Congress legislators, after tendering resignation, went to Mumbai where they are camping ever since.

Shivakumar said he went to Mumbai expressly because JD(S) legislator K Gopalaiah had phoned up Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. “The chief minister was told that the MLAs have been held there in captivity and they requested us to come,” Shivakumar said, hitting out at the BJP.

The Speaker, however, refused to take cognisance of this. “No MLA has sought my protection, either through email or SMS. If they’ve sought the government’s protection, then I don’t know,” Kumar said.