Raju Kage, family members had assaulted Congress worker
The district police have credible clues about the absconding BJP MLA, Bharamagouda alias Raju Kage, from Kagwad of Athani taluk and his family members, accused in a case related to carrying out an assault on Congress worker Vivek Shetty in Ugar on Januar 1, but not sure of when they would be held.
Superintendent of Police B.R. Ravikanthe Gowda told presspersons here on Wednesday that the police have clues. Four teams had been set up to trace 13 accused persons, which included Mr. Kage and his family members. The incident was not brought to the notice of the police, which took cognisance of media reports and sent a Sub-Inspector to Miraj and obtained a FIR from the victim, Vivek Shetty, on Monday. Cases under Section 307 and several other sections of IPC have been registered against the accused persons. Subsequently, the police raided the houses of all the accused on Tuesday afternoon but none of them were traced.
The complainant had cited political reasons for the assault, following his critical remarks posted against Mr. Kage on Facebook and Whatsapp.
Asked if the police had delayed taking action to arrest them the moment a FIR was obtained from the complainant, Mr. Gowda said police seized a car belonging to the accused family the same day (Monday) afternoon.
On what prompted the involvement of women members of Kage family in the assault vis-à-vis unconfirmed reports of certain obscene SMS messages sent to women members of the complainant’s family, the SP said the fact would be known once the accused persons were arrested. However, “we have launched massive search operations and we are confident that the accused would be arrested at the earliest,” Mr.Gowda said, denying information about possibilities of accused trying for anticipatory bail.
