VHP leader Khandya in Handibag case to be booked under Goonda Act
Bengaluru: Khandya is one of five suspects in the case. As many as 32 different cases are pending against him.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP) leader Praveen Khandya, suspect in the suicide of Chikkamagalur Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Kallappa Handibag will be booked under the Goonda Act.
Khandya is one of five suspects in the case. As many as 32 different cases are pending against him. The government now has sufficient evidence to book him under the Goonda Act (the Karnataka Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug-Offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Slum-Grabbers and Video or Audio Pirates Act), Siddaramaiah said in the Legislative Assembly.
“Death of Kallappa is unfortunate. It is not proper to compare Kallappa’s suicide case with that of the other DySP M K Ganapathi. The government will not shield anybody.
The CID is already investigating the case. Based on the CID report, appropriate action will be taken against all those involved, he added. Siddaramaiah assured the Opposition that the government will examine the possibility of offering a job on compassionate grounds to Kallappa’s wife. But there is no provision to give compensation to the kin of officers who commit suicide, he pointed out.
Shenoy issue
On the controversy relating to the resignation of Anupama Shenoy as DySP, he said she had cited personal reasons for quitting. “If she was under any kind of pressure from the liquor lobby, she could have informed her senior colleagues and the government. But she has not done that. It appears that she did not want to serve in the police department,” he added. Siddaramaiah denied that the Ballari
Superintendent of Police had refused to accept her papers for citing the liquor lobby as the reason for her resignation. All efforts made by the government to contact her and convince her to withdraw the resignation went in vain as she remained inaccessible. He also turned down the demand by Opposition parties to reinstate her.
Shikha case
Siddaramaiah admitted that Congress worker Marigowda abusing Mysuru Deputy Commissioner C Shikha recently was a mistake. “I admit it is a mistake. If a person belongs to my party or any other, it is not proper to treat an officer like that. Many of you (Opposition leaders) said he is my close aide. But I know him since 1983…I later took him to task,” the Chief Minister said.
He reiterated that Shikha is a good officer and hence she has been serving in the same post for the past three years.
‘VHP Leader’ is a ‘suspect’ in a suicide case?? Ignoring how shamelessly press tries to defame VHP in a case that has nothing to do with VHP, what exactly does ‘suspect’ in a suicide case mean? Does he mean that he directly forced the victim to commit suicide? Or, he was named as one of the people by the victim before he took his own life? If so, how is it different from DySp Ganapathi case where he also named a few individuals including a minister before committing suicide? Why are stenographers not asking these simple questions?