In an embarrassment to the Congress party, which exposed the rift in the party in Karnataka, the Bidadi police on Monday registered an attempt to murder case against MLA JN Ganesh, for assaulting his party colleague MLA Anand Singh. In the early hours of Sunday, Kampli MLA JN Ganesh had allegedly hit Vijayanagara MLA Anand Singh with a liquor bottle during an argument over Ganesh trying to defect to the BJP. As a result, Anand Singh was admitted to a private hospital in the city on Sunday afternoon.
Ganesh has been booked under sections 323 (Voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 307 (Attempt to murder), 504 (intentional insult to breach peace) and 506 (Criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This incident took place at the Eagleton Resort in Bengaluru, where the party MLAs were shepherded on Friday night. Anand Singh’s supporters had held protests as they called for punitive action against Ganesh.
In his statement to the police, Anand Singh told police that on the night of 19th, after dinner, Anand Singh and Ganesh was walking to their respective rooms. At that time, Ganesh questioned Anand Singh, why he did not apparently give enough money for election campaigning and started blaming him. When Anand Singh denied these allegations he, Ganesh started abusing him, and he took out a log from a flower pot and started hitting him. After this, he threw a pot on Anand Singh’s head and as a result, Anand fell on the ground. Upon this, he fell on the ground and Ganesh started stamping on his chest. This was when Tanveer Sait and other two MLAs rescued him and stopped him. By this time, he had lost consciousness.
He remembered that by the time he regained sense, he was at the hospital. He remembered, Ganesh, saying, “I should have killed you long back and all these things would not have happened. Where is the pistol, I want to shoot you now. “
KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao announced that Ganesh has been suspended from the party with immediate effect. An inquiry headed by Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara will decide his fate.
Water Resource Minister DK Shivakumar had earlier denied that the two MLAs were involved in a brawl. "There was no fight, no assault, no liquor bottles; both the MLAs will speak to the media soon,” he told on Sunday. A few hours later, party MLC Rizwan Arshad claimed that Anand Singh was injured after he accidentally slipped.
The BJP naturally egged on the issue. In a tweet, the party said, “Congress MLA's should stay safe since the greed for power within the party could be fatal.”
Here is the copy of FIR filed against Congress Kampli MLA Ganesh by Congress Hosapete MLA Anand Singh
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) January 21, 2019
Entire attempt to murder episode that Congress was trying to hush up now stays exposed
Congress MLA's should stay safe since the greed for power within the party could be fatal pic.twitter.com/edWTAY0MmF
Earlier in the day, the BJP mocked its rival saying, “We think @KPCCPresident should make helmets mandatory for their MLAs locked up in Eagleton Resort.”
We think @KPCCPresident should make helmets mandatory for their MLA’s locked up in Eagleton Resort. pic.twitter.com/2j2hymQ9co
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) January 21, 2019