Kumaraswamy Rakes up Bus Burning Case, Targets BJP Govt
Bangalore, Mar 5 (PTI): JD(S) leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today demanded that the state government challenge a local court's order acquitting the accused in the 2007 bus burning case, in which two persons were charred to death.
The state unit president of JD(S) alleged the BJP government had "weakened" the case during the trial and made the "witnesses turn hostile".
Kumaraswamy said two persons were burnt alive after Bajrang Dal and RSS workers allegedly set fire to a Tamil Nadu bus on September 18, 2007 on Hosur Road in protest against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's statement on Lord Ram during the Sethusamudram project controversy.
Two cases were booked at the time -- one against those who allegedly torched the bus, and another in connection with an attack on the house of Karunanidhi's daughter Selvi here. The Lok Sabha member said Ganesh Udupa, one of the main accused in the case, is a close relative of the then Home Minister V S Acharya. "The BJP government has misused power", Kumaraswamy alleged, seeking answers on the issue from Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, Acharya, who is now Higher Education Minister, and Law Minister S Suresh Kumar.
He said that even more a year after the verdict, the state government had yet to challenge the acquittal in a higher court. Even the TN government was "silent" on the issue, and Selvi had chosen not to give evidence, he claimed.
"Truth has to come out," Kumaraswamy said and sought a CBI probe into it by reopening case and challenging the verdict in the Supreme Court. Kumaraswamy said the issue would be raised in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Monday next through an adjournment motion. He appealed to the opposition Congress to extend support to JD(S) in this context.
Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy disapproved of the debate on whether Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies N R Narayana Murthy had the credentials to inaugurate the World Kannada Conference to be held in Belgaum from March 11.
Ignoring criticisms aimed at Murthy questioning his contribution towards Kannada, he said it was "irrelevant" who would inaugurate the meet. The state government has, amidst criticism from several Kannada organisations, already declared its firm intention to stick with its plan of Murthy inaugurating the function.
Kumaraswamy said it was during his tenure that the decision to hold the Conference in Belgaum was taken, though Yeddyurappa was pushing for the case of Shimoga.
Kumaraswamy said Belgaum was chosen as the venue for the meet as "Maharashtra's behaviour had to be stopped completely". (Maharashtra claims that Belgaum belongs to it, and had been repeatedly raising the issue).