BJP blames 'love jihad' for Neha Hiremath's murder in Hubballi
Neha Hiremath, a first-year MCA student in BVB College, was stabbed to death on the campus by accused Fayaz Khondunaik.
The murder of the daughter of a Congress councillor in Hubballi on her college campus for allegedly rejecting a man's marriage proposal, has triggered a political row in poll-bound Karnataka. While the ruling Congress claimed “a personal angle”, the Opposition BJP suspects that the motivation behind the murder was "love jihad".
Neha Hiremath, a first-year MCA student in BVB College, was stabbed to death on the campus by accused Fayaz Khondunaik. The accused, who was arrested later, allegedly told the police that he had stabbed Neha multiple times because the two were in a relationship and she had been avoiding him of late. The victim's family, however, claimed he killed her as she declined his marriage proposal.
Karnataka BJP president BY Vijayendra said that prima facie, it appears to be a case of love jihad. He claimed that rather than probing the motivation behind the crime, chief minister Siddaramaiah was trying to protect the culprit.
"The present Congress government does not care about anything. Earlier, when a blast took place in Mangalore, deputy CM DK Shivakumar said it was a small stray incident and not a terrorist attack. Later when an investigation was carried out, many people were arrested. As far as the Hubballi-Dharwad incident is concerned, it is very unfortunate on the part of the CM. Instead of coming to the rescue of the family, he says the murder took place due to a personal vendetta. Women across the state are questioning the state government," he said.
Siddaramaiah had said that the law and order situation in Karnataka was very good and the murder took place due to personal reasons.
The father of the victim, Niranjan Hiremath, said his daughter had turned down the man's love proposal.
"After my daughter was returning from college, an unknown person came and stabbed her seven times and she died on the spot. The accused has already been arrested. The motive of the murder is that the victim rejected the accused's love proposal. We had a conversation with the accused before the incident took place where we explained to him that we are Hindu and you are Muslim, so we cannot allow you to get married," he told ANI.
Meanwhile, the father of the accused has apologised to the victim's family.
Baba Saheb Subani, a school teacher and Fayaz's father told media on Saturday that he came to know about the incident around 6 pm on Thursday and was completely shocked and shattered with his son's act.
"He (Fayaz) should be punished in a way that no one dares to do such a thing in future. With folded hands, I apologise to Neha's family members. She was like my daughter," he said with tears in his eyes.
He claimed Neha's family had called him to inform that the man had been troubling. He claimed the duo were in a relationship.
"Fayaz told me he wanted to marry her but I refused it with folded hands," he added.
With inputs from PTI, ANI
