KARWAR: The Paresh Mesta death case of 2018 has returned as a point of contention in the 2024 polls, with Congress candidate Anjali Nimbalkar facing the heat from the BJP, which is accusing her husband and senior police officer Hemant Nimbalkar of favouring the then Siddaramaiah dispensation during the investigation.
The case has since been closed, after the CBI filed a ‘B’ report, stating a lack of concrete evidence to term it a murder. However, it is still being politicised in the district with both Congress and BJP squabbling over it. Anjali’s husband is on BJP’s radar for cases booked against Hindu activists during that time.
The issue reignited when the BJP protested over student Neha Hiremath’s murder, when Minister for Ports and Fisheries Mankal Vaidya stated that “BJP just needs a dead body for politics”, indirectly pointing towards the 2018 issue.
Though the allegations reverberated every now and then during the Congress’ campaign, BJP Lok Sabha candidate Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri spoke for the first time, blaming Hemant Nimbalkar for indiscriminately arresting people and putting them behind bars. “We were protesting. We were arrested and booked. He rounded up all the Hindu activists and sent them in a KSRTC bus.
Now, years later, the Congress leaders scream, saying we escaped in a KSRTC bus. Nimbalkar was acting on behalf of the Congress government. He arrested people unconcerned with the matter. What did Rupali Naik do to be arrested and booked? Why was Dinakar Shetty arrested? Hundreds of Hindu workers were just arrested to please his Congress bosses,” he charged.