BENGALURU: Senior BJP leader CT Ravi said on Thursday that the Congress government is not serious about combating terror. The State Intelligence wing was not aware of the use of mobile phones in Bengaluru Central jail for terror acts until the National Investigation Agency (NIA) made the arrests, he said.
The NIA on Tuesday arrested prison psychiatrist Dr Nagaraj, assistant sub-inspector (City Armed Reserve police) Chand Pasha, and the mother of an absconding accused, Anees Fathima, in a 2023 case related to the radicalisation of prisoners in Bengaluru by a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Tadiyandavede Naseer.
“When NIA can get the information and act on it, why did our state intelligence not get the information and act on it?” he questioned.
Ravi asked if the state intelligence department is in a coma. Karnataka is in news for all the wrong reasons like stampede, crimes against women, suicides, murders, and rampant corruption, he said and added that if the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister cannot run the administration, they should resign and go.
The BJP leader questioned if the situation is so bad that the State Intelligence knows about the illegal acts inside the central prison, but pretends as if it was unaware of it. Apart from those arrested, many others may be involved in the anti-national acts, he said, and added that it is difficult to believe that state intelligence officials and jail staff were not aware of anti-national acts planned inside the central prison.
Ravi said that instead of posting honest officers to the Internal Security Division (ISD), it was used for punishment postings for officers. The BJP leader alleged that the state intelligence and the ISD failed due to rampant corruption in postings.
On the leadership issue in Congress, Ravi said it is not the BJP, but Congress legislators who are talking about it. People have elected them to give good administration and not to indulge in corruption and increase prices of essential commodities, he added.