Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Aug 13: "Since childhood, we grew together with others, without making any differences between different religions. The attack on our house has shocked us. If there was a delay of 15 minutes, our entire family including four grandchildren would have perished. It is true that Muslims attacked us in one direction. At the same time, Muslim community members were the ones who saved my life," said Jayanthi, elder sister of MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy.
She was recalling the attack by miscreants relating to a disputed Facebook post reportedly created by her son on Prophet. She had miraculously escaped from the attack. She is now busy collecting things which have survived the attack without getting burnt or damaged.
Violence in Bengaluru on Aug 11 (file photo)
Jayanthi said she was born and brought up at Kavalbhyrasandra. "My husband, who was employed in the health department, built our house here 40 years back after our marriage. We live with people of all religions. My son Naveen is gentle by nature. He never gets involved in mischief. My younger brother, Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, has become MLA twice. Muslims have good rapport and relationship with him. From our family, four have become corporators. But the incident which happened at night has made a deep impact on our minds. Some people rioted, by claiming that my son did something on Facebook. There appears to be a political conspiracy behind everything. Even now I shudder to recall the incidents at night," she said.
Naveen had married three months back and the couple had gone out in the evening. "Children, grandchildren etc had come here as we celebrated the Varaha Lakshmi festival in a grand way. At 8.15 pm someone pelted stones at our house. I immediately sent 12 members of the family including grandchildren to the neighbouring house and stayed alone inside. I was thinking that they will not do anything to me. Five lac rupees in cash and ornaments were there in the almirah. The miscreants, who gate-crashed into the house, poured petrol and ignited the fire. They surrounded me. They were all strangers whom we do not recognize. Immediately some local Muslim youngsters came and advised me to go away lest I might be killed. They forcibly brought me out of the house," she said.
Jayanthi recalled that the hooligans destroyed things in the house, robbed cash and jewellery, poured petrol on the house and torched it. The cars and motorbikes parked outside were also torched. They also went into the house of our tenants and vandalised. After some time, the police came at which we were relieved. The commissioner came at night and instilled confidence in us. My son has not done anything wrong. Some people have stolen his mobile and done some mischief. We have become victims of political one-upmanship," she said with a voice choked with emotions.