Spot visit: Basavaraj Bommai along with senior leaders visiting Praveen’s house in Bellare, on Thursday. M. RAGHAVA Raghava M | Photo Credit: Raghava M
“If the primary health centre here had been working well and had manpower, my husband may have been saved. Why don’t you shut the centre?” asked Nutan, the inconsolable wife of Praveen Nettaru, when Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai visited the family.
She also told him no amount of compensation could fill the void created by the death of her husband, a BJP Yuva Morcha activist. The party machinery had not immediately rushed to the help of the family, she complained.
Vasanth, a relative, also urged Mr. Bommai to take action against the police who resorted to unprovoked lathicharge on activists at Bellare on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters later, Mr. Bommai termed the murder of Praveen Nettaru as not just a murder, but a “terrorist act” and promised that the government will leave no stone unturned in breaking up the structure of organisations involved in such acts.
Mr. Bommai was speaking to reporters after consoling the family members of Praveen at his house and handing over a cheque for ₹25 lakh from CM Relief Fund as the compensation towards death due to communal violence at Nettaru in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada district. Prima facie it was a pre-planned murder and such crimes were on the rise in Dakshina Kannada-Udupi belt since a decade or so with the support of anti-social elements.
The government is already in touch with central agencies that are cooperating in the probe while Karnataka Additional DGP (Law and Order) Alok Kumar was camping in the district since two days leading the investigation. The probe would cover all angles, from the murder to organisations behind the crime and soon the perpetrators of the murder would be arrested.
NIA for Karnataka
Mr. Bommai said the government would pressurise the Centre to sanction a National Investigation Agency (NIA) set up in Karnataka, particularly in Mangaluru to curb anti-social and anti-National elements. If the preliminary probe reveals necessity of conducting a larger probe under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the government would definitely handover the case to NIA.
BJP State President and DK MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, legislators from the district, State BJP organisational secretary Rajesh and others accompanied Mr. Bommai.
