Dharmasthala case: Minister Parameshwara questions need for NIA probe
Bengaluru (PTI): Amid mounting pressure for an NIA probe into the Dharmasthala case, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday said the state government has already constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and that the Centre has to justify any move to take over the inquiry.
Questioning the rationale behind the demand for an NIA probe, Parameshwara remarked, “... We formed an SIT to probe it. Earlier, they (religious leaders) were saying that the SIT probe itself was not proper. Now they are demanding that the matter be handed over to the NIA. Isn’t that an investigation too?”
He was responding to a query from reporters about Seers meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and pressing for a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe.
On the issue of foreign funding, he replied, “Naturally, the central government has to probe that aspect as the state government cannot do it.”
Addressing the media, the Minister maintained that SIT was looking into the allegations of multiple murders and burial of bodies in the temple town of Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district.
“If there are any shortcomings in the investigation, then it should be brought to our notice,” Parameshwara said.
Asked whether the state would comply if the NIA formally sought the case, he said, “The NIA will have to justify why it wants to probe it. The state government will not have options if they justify it.”
Commenting on SIT summoning Uday Jain, he said, “I don’t know what information SIT got because they have to gather details related to each matter. The SIT might have summoned him based on the information provided by the informants. Every information cannot be shared unless the investigation is completed.”
Refuting claims of a reinvestigation into the 2012 case of Sowjanya, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 2012 in Dharmasthala, Parameshwara said, “I am not going to call it reinvestigation. We will get to know with what objective and link they (SIT) are investigating it. We cannot say at this juncture.”
Asked why the government did not act sooner on intelligence inputs about meetings allegedly held by an NGO after the Soujanya case verdict, Parameshwara responded, “I only deal with policing, law and order, and crime. Intelligence is with the Chief Minister.”
Reacting to political leaders' march to Dharmasthala, he said, “Lord Manjunatha Swamy (the deity of Dharmasthala) doesn’t belong to any individual. He gives a call to everyone. From that point of view there is nothing wrong in going there — whether BJP, JD(S) or Congress go there. There is no hindrance in anyone going to Dharmasthala.”
He added, “We are only questioning why they (BJP) went there after the Dharmasthala issue surfaced. A question emerges as to why didn’t they (BJP) go there earlier. It’s obvious that there is politics behind it.”
Parameshwara further said the Congress rally to Dharmasthala was in response to the BJP.
“Because the BJP went to Dharmasthala, Congress workers too marched there. Hadn’t they (BJP) gone there, Congress workers also wouldn’t have travelled there. That’s how we must think,” he remarked.
A controversy erupted after a complainant, later identified as C N Chinnaiah and arrested on charges of perjury, claimed burying a number of bodies, including those of women with signs of sexual assault, in Dharmasthala over a period of time, with the implications pointing towards the administrators of the local temple.
The BJP had protested against targeting the temple. Veerendra Heggade, the Dharmadhikari or the custodian of the temple too had welcomed the constitution of the SIT.
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West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee moves SC against SIR
New Delhi (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state, sources said on Sunday.
The petition names the Election Commission (EC) and the chief electoral officer of West Bengal as respondents. It was filed before the apex court on January 28, the sources said.
Banerjee arrived in Delhi on Sunday. She is scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at 4 pm on Monday to discuss the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo would be accompanied by a delegation of party leaders.
She is also likely to meet party MPs in the Parliament House on Monday.
Talking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for the national capital, Banerjee claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre is resorting to the SIR exercise because it is certain of its imminent defeat in the West Bengal Assembly polls, due in a few months, and said the saffron party should contest the election politically and democratically.
The West Bengal chief minister has written several letters to the CEC, raising concerns over the conduct of the exercise.
In her most recent letter to the CEC on January 31, she alleged that the methodology and approach of the exercise went beyond the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the relevant rules, causing "immense inconvenience and agony" to citizens.
Earlier, TMC leaders, including Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, had moved the apex court, challenging certain aspects of how the SIR is being carried out in West Bengal.
