Nalin accuses govt of misusing police

Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel accused the state government of misusing the police to forcefully impose the bandh in Dakshina Kannada district.

Addressing reporters at the district BJP office in Mangaluru on Monday, the MP said that the Congress workers have exhibited hooliganism, in the name of protests. “The forceful bandh observed by the Congress and other organisations is a murder of democracy.” According to the SC verdict, those who give the bandh call, are responsible for the losses incurred during the bandh. Both, the Congress and the JD(S), which are part of the coalition government in the state, have supported the bandh and therefore, the state government should reimburse the losses, the MP said.

Alleging that the police department has been misused during the bandh, the MP said that the Home Department is directly responsible for the same. Nalin Kumar Kateel suspected a foul play by the rebel wing of the Congress, which may have created havoc to tarnish the image of the state government. “The possibilities of the members of this separate group of Congress creating chaos could not be ruled out, and this group is against Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, who also holds the Home portfolio.”

“The BJP is not against the idea of the bandh. But, the bandh should be Constitutional. In the earlier instances where BJP had observed bandhs, medical shops were not closed. Whereas the bandh observed on Monday, the goons of Congress forced the medical shops to down the shutters and prevented the patients from reaching the hospitals,” Nalin said.

Former minister B Ramanath Rai has unethically deployed his escort police to force the shopkeepers, including the medical shops, pull down the shutters, Kateel alleged.