Youth Cong leader held after ‘PayMLA’ posters emerge in Tumkuru

Police said district Youth Congress president Sashi Hulikunte was arrested after PayMLA posters appeared in Tumkuru with BJP MLA GB Jyothiganesh’s visage and a QR code on them on Saturday.

Tumkuru police arrested a Youth Congress leader after posters of ‘PayMLA’, which is part of Congress’s campaign against the alleged corruption by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka, appeared in the district on Saturday, officials said.

Tumkuru police arrested a Youth Congress leader after posters of ‘PayMLA’ appeared in the district on Saturday (Agencies/Representative use)

Police said district Youth Congress president Sashi Hulikunte was arrested after PayMLA posters appeared in Tumkuru with BJP MLA GB Jyothiganesh’s visage and a QR code on them on Saturday.

Police said the poster with Jyothiganesh’s face read, “If you want to get any work done, pay me.”

The poster titled ‘PayMLA’ was pasted on several popular roads and walls of Tumkuru overnight, police said.

Last year, Congress started the ‘PayCM’ campaign against the BJP government. A wordplay on digital payments firm PayTM, the PayCM campaign had a QR code showing Bommai’s face in the middle. ‘PayCM’ is a campaign targeting the government on the issue of alleged corruption, including the 40% commission allegation made by the Karnataka State Contractors Association.

Meanwhile, Tumkuru police said that arrest was not made because of the posters but because Hulikunte threatened police officers.

The Congress leaders in the district said that police arrested party workers over the posters, and when Hulikunte questioned it, he, too, was arrested.

According to police, on Saturday, four people who were pasting Pay MLA posters in Gandhinagar were detained. Following this, Hulikunte came to the police station in the morning, demanding their release.

“The officers in the station said that only when the police sub-inspector (PSI) comes to the station, they could be released, but he raised in voice and threatened the staff. He later threatened the PSI as well,” said a senior officer.

After some time, when the PSI arrived and during this time, he interrupted the interrogation of those in custody, the officer added.

Following this, Hulikunte was arrested for obstructing a public servant in the discharging duty under section 186 of the Indian Penal Code, the officer said.

A district Congress leader said that the police arrested the district youth wing president for questioning the detention of the workers.

“They (police) are working on behalf of the government, and to save the government’s face from the corruption charges. They had detained young boys for sticking posters and later arrested the leader who questioned it,” said the district youth wing leader, who didn’t want to be named.