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Congress leaders detained in Karnataka amid huge protests over contractor death
Karnataka contractor death: The state saw big protests by the Congress leaders.
Several top Congress leaders, including DK Shivakumar and former chief minister Siddarmaiah, were briefly detained on Thursday in Karnataka amid protests over the death of a contractor linked to state minister KS Eshwarappa. Visuals shared by news agency ANI captured the chaos as the Congress demonstrated in Bengaluru, continuing its demand for the resignation of the state minister, who has been accused of pushing the contractor to suicide. After release, the leaders announced an overnight sit-in near the state assembly. “We'll protest overnight,” DK Shivakumar said.
The police had to resort to the use of force to disperse the demonstrators.
It has been alleged that contractor Santosh Patil was pushed to kill himself after he was asked to pay bribes. An FIR was filed on Wednesday against the minister and two of his aides.
Earlier on Thursday, the family of the contractor performed his last rights. They’ve been seeking justice and demanding action against the minister and his aides.
The Congress protested in other parts of the state also on Thursday, including Shivamogga.
Earlier, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had dismissed the calls for resignation of the minister as he slammed the opposition. “The Congress doesn't have any moral right to protest. Congress is a Gangotri of corruption. The postmortem (in this case) was done yesterday, and now a preliminary inquiry(report) will come. Based on that we'll proceed.”
To this, DK Shivakumar had responded saying: “The chief minister wants to save his corrupt minister. I think he is also part of this whole process. If he wants to save the face of BJP and his government, then immediately arrest (KS Eshwarappa) and book a case of corruption.”
A defiant KS Eshwarappa has said he won't resign. While Patil was reported to said to be a BJP worker, the minister said he never saw the contractor's face.
Patil gave "letters to Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union rural development and Panchayati Raj minister Giriraj Singh, alleging I have done work worth ₹4 crore and Eshwarappa’s aides are asking for a bribe. They have written to the state department in Karnataka. But we have written that there is no work order,” the minister said.
“I suspect he might have committed suicide out of fear because he was given notice [over the allegations[. The matter is in court now and our department has specified it in writing. These are baseless charges against me,” Eshwarappa added.
(With inputs from ANI)
