Cheques handed over to dead contractor’s family

Congress leaders donated ₹16 lakh to the family of Santosh Patil, a contractor who was found dead in Udupi a few days ago. Santosh Patil, it may be recalled, had accused the former Minister K.S. Eshwarappa of corruption.

KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar handed over a cheque for ₹11 lakh to Jayashree Patil, wife of Santosh Patil, in their ancestral village of Badas in Belagavi district on Tuesday. Another cheque for ₹5 lakh was delivered to the family from the office of Ganesh Hukkeri, MLA and Congress leader.

Mr. Shivakumar, MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar and other leaders consoled Santosh Patil’s family members and asked them to stay brave and focus on the future of his son.

Later, Mr. Shivakumar told journalists that the Congress will continue to organise protests across the State demanding justice for Santosh Patil.

Reacting to Ramesh Jarkiholi’s charge that some Mahanayaka was involved in a conspiracy to force Mr. Eshwarappa to resign, Mr. Shivakumar said that such talk was meaningless. “Some leaders do not have the guts to take my name. That is why they keep using some sobriquets. I don’t bother about such things. They are meaningless anyway,’’ he said.

“If Ramesh Jarkiholi has any evidence, let him produce it, rather than make baseless statements,’’ he said.

“Even we have several things to say about Ramesh Jarkiholi. For one, he was the district in-charge Minister when Santosh Patil was laying roads in Hindalga Gram Panchayat. We have photographs that show Ramesh Jarkiholi doing bhoomi puja. But we did not release them as they would have diverted police investigation of the death of the contractor,“ Mr. Shivakumar said.

“Some BJP leaders are saying that Santosh Patil was a Congressman earlier. This is nothing but an attempt at insulting the dead contractor. We should approach the case with empathy and humanity,” he said.

Mahantesh Koujalgi and Anjali Nimbalkar, MLAs, Firose Sait, former MLA, and others were present.