BENGALURU:
Two cars parked outside the Karnataka BJP MLA Satish Reddy’s residence were torched during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday by unidentified miscreants.
Taking note of the incident, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has directed the police to expedite the investigation and trace down the culprits as soon as possible.
“I have spoken to Satish Reddy and instructed the police to expedite the investigation … Quickly hunt down the culprits. This has been done out of hate against Satish Reddy,” he told reporters after reaching Mangaluru.
He is on a visit to Mangaluru to oversee the measures taken by the district administration to curb transmission of Covid from neighboring Kerala, which is facing an increasing number of Covid cases.
Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra announced the formation of three teams to trace down the culprits.
Narrating the incident, Reddy said, “Two unidentified miscreants had come on a bike. They entered the house and torched the cars – Fortuner and Thar. It just took them seven minutes to burn down the cars parked in the MLA’s house. They escaped from the back gate. Though there is a CCTV camera installed, we are not able to identify the faces. We are investigating the matter.”
When asked about if there was any link between the installation of the Shiva statue on Begur lake with the car-burning incident, Reddy denied any link and said the problem has been solved amicably. “I had convinced the right-wing activities not to interfere in court matters and they agreed. After that, this incident has taken place,” Mr. Reddy said.
Some right-wing groups last week had gone ahead unveiling Shiva’s statue, despite the Karnataka High Court upholding its 2019 interim order against laying an artificial island and installation of Shiva statue on the lake.
