The political row over the alleged killing of 18-year-old BJP worker Paresh Mesta in Honnavar escalated on Tuesday as the party took the issue to Governor Vajubhai R. Vala, demanding a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the case.
- December 1: Id Milad and Hanuma Jayanti fall on the same day. Local MLA and police try to negotiate between two communities, asking Hanuma Jayanti celebrations to be held at the same venue at a later date. But the BJP and the Sangh Parivar take objection; Honnavar is tense
- December 6: A tiff breaks out over an accident between an autorickshaw and motorbike on Honnavar–Kumta Road. It soon leads to tension between the two communities. The two communities clash in Honnavar that evening. Paresh Mesta, 18, a BJP worker, goes missing
- December 8: Severely bloated body of Mesta is found floating in a lake in the town. Honnavar tense again
- December 9: BJP leaders Shobha Karandlaje and Anantkumar Hegde attend funeral, claim Mesta was “tortured beyond imagination by jihadi forces”
- December 10: BJP State core committee meeting decides to petition the Governor, raise the issue in Parliament, brief Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and hold a public rally in Honnavar, demanding NIA probe
- December 11: BJP calls for a bandh in Karwar and Kumta. BJP procession in Kumta turns violent as protesters throw stones and torch a senior police official’s vehicle. Police release a 19-point questionnaire answered by the doctor who conducted the postmortem, refuting BJP allegations that Mesta was tortured
- December 12: BJP calls for a bandh in Sirsi. Defying prohibitory orders, party takes out a procession that turns violent, resulting in stone-pelting. The police fire tear gas shells. BJP delegation of MLAs meet the Governor in Bengaluru, seeking NIA probe into the case
Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said handing over the case to the NIA was out of question before even the post-mortem report was out. “If the report, expected in two weeks, concludes that it was a murder, we will nab the culprits,” he said. He came down heavily on the BJP for “Goebbels-speak”, comparing the pattern of campaign to the one carried out by the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels. He said the BJP had similarly tried to communalise the death of a girl in Thirthahalli in 2014.
The BJP, in its memorandum to the Governor, claimed Mesta was “tortured beyond anybody’s imagination”, giving graphic details of what they claimed were marks of torture. Interestingly, these were the allegations that a 19-point police questionnaire answered by the doctor who conducted the autopsy on Mesta’s body, refuted on Monday.
Shobha Karandlaje, MP, told The Hindu that the BJP stood by the allegations they had made despite the denial by the doctor.
The BJP claimed that a total of 19 Hindutva activists had been killed in the State since 2014 and the Congress government in the State “was conveniently silent over these killings”. The BJP has termed these deaths “jihadi killings”.
Responding to these charges, Mr. Reddy gave details of deaths in communal incidents in the State since 2011. He said there had been 17 deaths in communal incidents.
“Not just Hindu right wing activists, even people from other communities have been killed in these incidents,” he said.
