Police acting like Puppets under Minister Pramod Madhwaraj – Raghupathi Bhat

Police acting like Puppets under Minister Pramod Madhwaraj – Raghupathi Bhat

Udupi: The former MLA of Udupi Raghupathi Bhat alleged that the district police department is acting like puppets under the district minister in-charge Pramod Madhwaraj. Because of instructions from him, the police department failed to book a case against the accused councillors who manhandled a public person during the CMC meeting.

He was speaking at a protest held by the Kadiyali residents on July 3 to condemn the manhandling incident during the CMC meeting.

Addressing the protesters Raghupathi Bhat said, “This district minister in charge Pramod Madhwaraj is playing dirty politics in the district. During his administration, the woman officials like the DC and AC were attacked while they had raided an illegal sand mining area. Nearly 60 to 70 members had attacked them but only 18 of the accused were arrested. The real accused are still active and roaming around without fear”.

Raghupathi Bhat further said, “In the recent incident, his own party councillor was attacked during the CMC meeting. Congress members had shown total disrespect to their own colleague. They tried to molest the woman councillor and also dragged her unnecessarily. For the first time in history, the CMC meeting witnessed such a shameful incident. The Udupi City Municipal Council has its own history. Late V S Acharya, Late K K Pai, Late Ranganath Shenoy, Rajya Sabha member Oscar Fernandes and others have served in this City Municipal Council. This incident will remain a black spot in the history of the CMC”.

Instead of taking disciplinary action against the four Congress councillors for their unruly behaviour, Minister Pramod Madhwaraj is protecting them. The person who was manhandled, Ronnie D’Mello, had come to the general body meeting only at the request of the Congress councillor Geeta Shet. CMC President Meenakshi Bannanje could have convinced him to go out. Instead, she remained silent.

The police should have booked a case under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the four councillors. But until now the police have not registered a FIR, the district police have become puppets under Pramod Madhwaraj. If a case is not booked against those four councillors soon, we will hold Protests in every village and ward across the district, Raghupathi Bhat said.

“The CMC and the Police tried to stop today’s protest by denying permission. We are living in India, not in Pakistan, we have all right to protest anywhere peacefully, we are not blocking the roads or not disturbing traffic movement. If the police want to book cases against the protesters then they should book a case against me and not the innocent residents”, Raghupathi Bhat warned.

Congress councillor Geeta Shet, Ronnie D’Mello, Damodar Aithal, former CMC President Kiran Kumar, vice president Bharathi Chandrashekar and others were present.