Bengaluru, Jul 22 (IANS): The Karnataka police have arrested three people on Saturday in connection with erecting posters against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during the recently-concluded Opposition parties' meet here.
Those arrested have been identified as Sriram, Nandakumar and Mohan, all residents of Sheshadripuram in Bengaluru.
According to police, Sriram had sponsored the erecting of the posters. They were printed in a printing press of accused Nandakumar. The posters were transported in the tempo belonging to Mohan.
The police have stated that the accused had put up posters against Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at 20 locations in the city. They were prominently displayed on the Bengaluru airport road as well. The police are grilling the accused to find out involvement of political leaders.
The posters and banners targetting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar surfaced in Bengaluru last week embarrassing him ahead of the Opposition parties meet organized to create a platform against the ruling BJP alliances.
Dubbing CM Nitish Kumar as the “Unstable Prime Ministerial Contender”, the posters had come up near the Chalukya Circle and Windsor Manor bridge and Airport Road near Hebbal locality.
It also slammed him for being invited to the event. “Bangalore rolls out the red carpet for CM Nitish Kumar!”
The posters also mentioned boldly about incidents of bridge collapses in Bihar under his regime. “First date of Sultanganj Bridge Collapse - April 2022, second date of Sultanganj bridge collapse - June 2023.”
Another poster ridiculed him as “Shri Nitish Kumar, the CM, Government of Bihar, the man who builds underwater bridges.”
The posters with pictures of Sultanganj bridge collapse were also put up. Nitish Kumar was one of the prominent leaders taking part in the event and he has not reacted to the development.
Karnataka Congress President and DyCM D.K. Shivakumar had slammed BJP for putting up posters against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Shivakumar maintained, “It is all our BJP friend’s work. He (Nitish Kumar) is a big threat to BJP and by putting up posters against him they are giving him publicity. The Congress party is ready to fight all these forces. Like cowards they are doing it. Nitish Kumar too knows Karnataka politics well,” he said.