Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the Congress will settle for nothing less than a judicial probe by a sitting High Court judge into the police firing at Mangaluru that claimed two lives on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters here on Monday, Mr. Siddaramaiah said justice would not be done to the victims by conducting an inquiry by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as announced by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. One police wing inquiring the acts and omissions of another would not bring out the truth and the CID probe was a mere eyewash to save the police.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that if the government does not order a judicial inquiry, the Congress would raise it on the Floor of the legislature.
He said it was unfortunate that the deceased, Jaleel and Nauseen, were also made accused in the FIR, while many students were also named in the report. Many of the arrested are innocent, he said, adding that police provoking the protesters was evident through several videos of Thursday’s incident.
Mr. Siddaramaiah took a dig at the government for not allowing him to visit Mangaluru a day after the incident on Friday and even the next day. “As Leader of the Opposition, it is my duty to correct the government whenever it goes in the wrong direction,” he said. Mr. Siddaramaiah wondered what role Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje had when she visited curfew-bound Mangaluru on Saturday along with Mr. Yediyurappa and other Ministers.
To a suggestion on whether the violence and firing were “stage-managed” to portray Mr. Yediyurappa as incompetent, Mr. Siddaramaiah answered in the affirmative and said many within the BJP were opposing the Chief Minister. “He [Mr. Yediyurappa] is very weak,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
Earlier, he visited the families of Jaleel and Nauseen and handed over cheques of ₹5 lakh and ₹2.5 lakh each from the State Congress and District Congress, respectively, to the families.
‘How do we trust the police now?’
A woman member of the family of the deceased Jaleel said it had become difficult to trust the police whom everyone believed as protector. “Even to cross a road, we looked at the police for help,” she told former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah when he visited their house on Monday.
She said: “We love this country, but want it to be safe. How can we believe the police now and venture out?” she asked. Bullets were being fired at the eye level, she said, adding that Jaleel was hit near his eye. “He had gone down the apartment to watch the incidents on the adjacent street, only to be killed,” she said.
