BENGALURU: Udupi-Chickmagalur MP Shobha Karandlaje visited the CID office at Carlton House, Palace Road, on Tuesday to meet arrested journalist S A Hemanth Kumar. “There is a political conspiracy against the BJP. Why is the police going after journalist and BJP sympathiser Hemanth Kumar? He is not the one who wrote that letter. Police should go after the one who wrote it. It appears to have been written last year. Why is the government carrying out vindictive campaigns against the BJP? Is it just because the complainant is home minister M B Patil? This is vendetta politics,’’ she said post her visit.
It may be recalled that Kumar was picked up for his role in circulating a ‘forged’ letter just before the second round of elections in Karnataka on April 23. The letter read that M B Patil had written to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Kumar was arrested after being named by Mahesh Vikram Hegde of Post Card News when the source of the letter he published was questioned.
The bail plea is scheduled to come before the court on Thursday. Karandlaje has already complained to union home minister Rajnath Singh, telling him about the ‘high-handedness’ of the police. Asked if she wishes to take the complaint to the PM Modi or to the President, she said, “Everyone is busy with elections, so I will wait.’’
Mysore-Kogadu MP Prathap Simha, who also spoke to TNIE, said, “Police are intimidating people who have posted this news on Facebook or on social media, threatening them that they will file FIRs. This should stop. If the letter is fake, let them prove it.’’