Don’t become BJP’s agent, DK Shivakumar warns Bengaluru police chief Kamal Pant

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar on Thursday warned Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant and asked him not to be biased in the inquiry into the Pulakeshinagar riots.

“You are getting influenced by BJP ministers. They’re influencing you to go in a certain direction and fix the Congress. Mr Police Commissioner, we won’t allow this,” Shivakumar said without naming Pant at the party’s ‘Janadhwani’ event to mark the birth of former PM Rajiv Gandhi and former CM D Devaraj Urs.

Warning Pant that he will have to face protests, Shivakumar asserted that no Congressman was responsible for the riots. “It was your failure. You didn’t handle it well. Don’t try to become an agent of the BJP,” Shivakumar charged.

He also demanded a judicial inquiry under a sitting High Court judge into the riots. “We have no faith in your magisterial inquiry into the riots.” An aide of former Mayor R Sampath Raj of the Congress has been arrested based on his call records in connection with the riots.

“Just because some calls were made, what does that even mean? Can somebody make calls to 5,000 people?” Shivakumar said. The police have arrested several innocent persons, Shivakumar rued. “Those who’ve wronged must be punished. But just because you want to show numbers, you’ve arrested innocents,” he said.

The Congress leader asked why no action was taken against BJP MLAs and MPs who made inflammatory statements in the past.