Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Oct 16: District in-charge and state urban development minister, Vinay Kumar Sorake, has lashed out at Shobha Karandlaje for accusing him of shielding a person accused of sexually harassing the daughter of his domestic help.

Speaking at Udupi, he clarified that a boy from Shobha Karandlaje's native place had tried to harass a school girl, and was nabbed by the people. The boy was a minor, and legal processes are progressing in this case. "I challenge Shobha Karandlaje to prove my involvement with efforts to close this case and the charge that I had offered protection to the culprit. I am prepared to participate in debate on this issue at any forum," he said.

"It is true that an incident in which a girl attending school was harassed happened in my place. The boy belongs to Kaniyoor, Shobha's native place. The people caught hold of the errant boy and turned him in to police. As he was a minor, the court granted him bail. The case is in progress, and this fact came to my notice during my recent visit to my village," he explained, duly accusing Shobha of indulging in making baseless allegations.

He reasoned that Shobha is doing this to spread dissent against him in the area as taluk and zilla panchayat elections are round the corner. He felt that Shobha, Nalin Kumar Kateel, etc are busy visiting the areas around here with the elections in mind.

"The activists of BJP somehow seem to love me so much. They had claimed to have visited my house to collect bricks during the Ayodhya movement. They had spread rumours that I had bolted my front iron gate and driven away the activists with the help of my Alsatian. I want to clarify that my house had no gate then, nor now, and neither have I owned an Alsatian then nor now," he added.

He questioned the motive behind Yeddyurappa's Raita Chaitanya Yatre, which he termed as political gimmick. He felt that Yeddyurappa, in the capacity of national vice president of BJP, could have brought pressure on the central government to release grants to address drought situation prevailing in 136 taluks in the state instead of holding Chaitanya Yatre.

About the allegation that he was giving prominence to Kaup constituency, Sorake admitted that he was in fact giving his constituency the attention it deserves as it had elected him to the assembly and made him minister. He said that Shobha, after getting elected from Yashwantpura, had never visited that place. After getting elected from Udupi, she has not been visiting there, he said, and advised her to hunt for another constituency for the next election.