Girl’s murder in Hubballi sparks protests; BJP targets govt

Hubballi (Karnataka), April 19

The murder of the daughter of a city councillor on the campus of her college here has sparked widespread condemnation and protests.

The issue has snowballed into a political slugfest between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP in Karnataka. While the ruling party has tried to project it as an incident with a personal angle, the saffron party suspects love jihad and has said that it shows the deterioration of law and order in the state.

BJP’s student wing ABVP and other organisations aligned to Hindutva outfits have staged protests demanding justice and calling for severe punishment for the accused. Similar protests have been reported from various other places.

Neha Hiremath (23), daughter of Congress councillor of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Niranjan Hiremath, was stabbed to death on the campus of BVB College on Thursday. The accused, Fayaz Khondunaik, who fled the scene, was arrested by the police later.

Neha was a first-year student of Master of Computer Applications and Fayaz was earlier her classmate. According to a senior police officer, Fayaz, who stabbed her multiple times, claimed during interrogation that the two had been in a relationship but she had been avoiding him of late.

“It needs to be corroborated and verified, but he was arrested immediately.” In Munavalli, Fayaz’s hometown in Belagavi district, there is outrage and demonstrations have been held by various organisations condemning the murder. Union Minister and Dharwad Lok Sabha BJP candidate Pralhad Joshi suspected that there was a love jihad angle behind the incident.