BJP leader Devaraje Gowda remanded to judicial custody in molestation and rape case
Hassan (Karnataka), May 11: BJP leader and advocate G Devaraje Gowda, arrested for alleged molestation and rape, was on Saturday remanded to 14 days judicial custody.
The BJP leader was arrested at the Gulihal toll gate by the Hiriyur Police in Chitradurga district late Friday night. He was arrested on a tip-off by the Hassan Police.
Earlier on Saturday, he was taken to Holenarasipura in Hassan district, where the incident had allegedly taken place, for questioning, police said.
He was then produced before a Magistrate, who remanded him to 14 days' judicial custody.
ALSO READ: BJP leader Devaraje Gowda taken to Holenarasipura in molestation and rape case
An FIR was registered against Gowda on a complaint by a 36-year-old woman from Hassan district, who alleged that he molested and raped her on the pretext of helping her sell her property.
A case of molestation was registered against Gowda on April 1. On Friday, the woman once again approached the police and alleged that she was also raped by him, a police officer told PTI.
The Holenarasipur police arrived in Chitradurga on Saturday morning. After the legal process, the Hiriyur police handed over Gowda to Holenarasipura police.
Gowda had unsuccessfully contested the 2023 assembly election on the BJP ticket and was defeated by JD(S) MLA and former minister H D Revanna.
He had also claimed that he alerted the BJP leadership last year about Prajwal Revanna's alleged sexual abuse of several women, and cautioned the saffron party not to give a Lok Sabha ticket to the JD(S) MP from Hassan.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
