Karnataka Congress suspends MLA accused of assault at party meet, police file FIR

Karnataka Congress MLA Anand Singh has filed an FIR against party colleague JN Ganesh and has accused him of assaulting him at the Eagleton Golf Resort on the outskirts of Goa at the CLP meet last week.

The Karnataka Congress on Monday suspended its MLA JN Ganesh from the party after an FIR was filed by another Congress MLA Anand Singh accusing him of assault. Ganesh was suspended on the directions of Dinesh Gundu Rao, president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

Both JN Ganesh and Anand Singh (pictured) are Congress MLAs from Ballari district. While Ganesh represents Kampali constituency, Singh represents Vijayanagar constituency. (ANI/Twitter)

A special committee has also been formed to investigate the issue of the alleged fight between the two MLAs. Karnataka deputy chief minister G Parameshwara will head the three-member committee which will also include state ministers Krishna Byre Gowda and KJ George as members.

Earlier, Karnataka Congress MLA Anand Singh filed an FIR against party colleague JN Ganesh accusing him of assaulting him at the Eagleton Golf Resort on the outskirts of Goa at the CLP meet last week.

Earlier, JN Ganesh had sought to downplay the incident, saying that Singh had got hurt after he fell down.

“Nothing happened the way media portrayed. Three of us (Anand Singh and LBP Bheema Naik) were sitting and then he fell down and got hurt. I am apologising for the incident,” Ganesh said.

Last week, wary of what they called the BJP’s possible attempt to poach some of its legislators in what it referred to as “operation lotus”, the Congress had driven 76 of its 80 MLAs to a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru, where the brawl between Singh and Ganesh allegedly took place.

Ever since the incident, the Congress has given various versions of the incident ranging from chest pain, to a fall and also claimed that “nothing happened”. Singh was admitted to Apollo Hospital on Sunday morning.

Earlier, speaking to Hindustan Times, backward classes welfare minister C Puttaragashetty had claimed that Singh and Ganesh had a heated argument during the second CLP meeting on Saturday.

“They were at it in the meeting and it appeared to have carried on into the night. I could hear raised voices near my room, but I cannot say for certain that there was physical violence,” Puttarangashetty said.

But Puttarangashetty’s claim was refuted by irrigation minister DK Shivakumar, saying that Singh was at a wedding and the media was speculating that there was a fight.