MANGALURU: Participants at the peace committee meeting held at the deputy commissioner’s office on Saturday, criticised the decision of chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, for being selective in visiting the houses of the victims of the recent murders in the district. Congress leader Mithun Rai said that the district is in the news for all the wrong reasons.
“Bommai is the chief minister of the state, and not for one party. He should have visited the house of Masood, who was also murdered in Bellare,” he said. The participants demanded that the state government should provide equal ex gratia to the kin of all the murder victims.
The meeting was held in the presence of ADGP (law and order) Alok Kumar, IGP (western range) Devajyoti Ray, Dakshina Kannada SP Rishikesh Sonawane, deputy commissioner K V Rajendra, city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar and MCC commissioner Akshy Sridhar. The representatives at the meeting, requested the administration to hold peace committee meetings in rural areas too. They felt that by handing over the Praveen Nettaru murder case to the NIA, the capabilities of the local police are being questioned. “Two officers who resorted to a lathicharge in Bellare have been transferred, which may bring down the morale of police officers,” the participants added.
