Woman held for caustic speech

A woman from Garaga village in the taluk was arrested on Wednesday on charges of making an inflammatory speech with regard to the separate Lingayat religion issue.

The woman, Shruti Bellakki, had, in the speech, cited the letter purported to have been written by Home Minister M B Patil to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the matter. The video of the speech has gone viral.

Dasharathrao Desai, who filed a complaint in this connection at the Rural police station, said that the circulation of the video was aimed at creating disharmony between communities and religions. Desai goes on to state in the complaint that Shruti says in her speech that Vinay Kulkarni, the Congress candidate from the Dharwad seat, should be defeated in the election. District SP G Sangeetha said women police personnel were sent to take Shruti, an advocate, into custody.