Man held for falsely blaming Maharashtra- Karnataka border dispute for accident

The accused, Chetan NV, works as a driver at the Karnataka State Rural Development Bank and he was deputed to Belagavi for the upcoming winter session of the state Assembly in Suvarna Soudha.

Amid the border row between Maharashtra and Karnataka, the driver of a state government-run bank has been detained for falsely accusing pro-Marathi groups of attacking him to try to cover up an accident.

The driver of a state government-run bank has been detained for falsely accusing pro-Marathi groups of attacking him (Representative use)

The accused, Chetan NV, works as a driver at the Karnataka State Rural Development Bank and he was deputed to Belagavi for the upcoming winter session of the state Assembly in Suvarna Soudha.

According to the police, Chetan was passing by the Hirebagewadi toll plaza around 7.30pm on Wednesday in a jeep and hit a truck carrying iron rods from the rear, allegedly under the influence of alcohol.

Hours later, he lodged a complaint with Bagewadi police in Belagavi taluk, alleging that his vehicle was attacked by pro-Marathi activists near Suvarna Soudha. The report of the incident went viral and the police launched a probe.

During questioning, the police found inconsistencies in the driver’s statements. Later, he confessed that he had cooked up the story to cover up the accident. “Since there was a clash between Kannadigas and Marathis, he tried to use it by levelling false allegations against Marathis,” said a senior officer familiar with the case, who didn’t want to be named.

Further investigations revealed that on Tuesday morning while coming to Belagavi from Bengaluru, he consumed alcohol at a restaurant in Haveri district around 4.30 pm. After crossing Hirebagewadi toll plaza, his jeep hit the truck.

Belagavi DCP (Law and Order) Ravindra Gadadi said that Chetan filed a false complaint stating that his vehicle was stopped by a few people who spoke in Marathi language and damaged his vehicle. “No such incident occurred. To cover his fault he had framed the false story,” DCP Gadadi said and appealed to not spread such rumours.

ADGP (law and order) Alok Kumar also said that legal action would be initiated against the driver. “The driver of the vehicle has misled by giving it a different twist. The scene of the incident and the reason is different. Legal action is being initiated against the driver for fomenting disharmony,” he tweeted.

A six-member ministerial team, comprising three ministers each from Maharashtra and Karnataka, will sit-together to discuss a festering interstate border issue and no state will stake claim on the territory till the Supreme Court decides the dispute, Union home minister Amit Shah announced on Wednesday after a meeting with the chief ministers of both states.

Shah met Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, and Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra in Delhi.

After the meeting, Shah said several decisions were taken to resolve the dispute, which he said “cannot be settled on the streets, but only through constitutional means”.