Belthangady: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) interrogated on Monday Mallika, arrested complainant-witness in the Dharmasthala mass burials case Chinnayya’s second wife, and Ratna, his sister, at the SIT office in town on Monday.

The SIT is said to have asked the duo to appear for questioning to collect information on Chinnayya, including that on his financial transactions.

Sowjanya Movement Activists had reportedly informed SIT that Chinnayya’s wife Mallika had accompanied her husband when he visited activist Mahesh Shetty Thimarody’s house. Video clips on the Chinnayya’s statements in the presence of Thimarody had come out in the open, but were different from the witness’ statement in court.

Mallika and Ratna were reportedly interrogated by the SIT to get clear information on such matters too.

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Mangaluru: Congress leader and former minister B Ramanath Rai slammed BJP leader R Ashoka for calling AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal an agent of the party high command, and asked if the general secretary and other office-bearers in the BJP were commission agents too.

Rai, who addressed a press meet at the Congress office in the city on Friday, expressed fury over the recent comments of the BJP leader that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was presenting himself in a shameless manner in public life. Ashoka, who is also Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, had said that the Congress government had ‘broken every previous record on corruption-related controversies’.

“Ashoka has spoken with sheer ignorance and displays his lack of maturity, as he often does while facing the media. KC Venugopal has been working at organization of the party and it is unbecoming of Ashoka to criticize Venugopal as he did,” Rai told reporters.

“Being in a responsible position, how acceptable is it for Ashoka to pass disrespectful, random comments about another leader who also holds a responsible position? If KC Venugopal is indeed an agent of the party high command, what should we consider BJP leaders to be? Are they brokers?” he asked

Commenting on Ashoka’s allegations of corruption in the Congress government in Karnataka, Rai pointed out, “The KSRTC land was sold to private parties when he (Ashoka) was transport minister. We can find several such cases across the state, which need to be probed.”

The former minister, however, refused to comment on the incident that occurred at Mangaluru airport during CM Siddaramaiah’s visit to the city recently.

Former mayors Ashraf and Shashidhar Hegde, Congress activists Vishwas Kumar Das, Subhodaya Alva, Shabeer, Baby Kundar, Padmanabha, Nazeer Bajal and Prem were present.