Bangalore:

The brutal murder of a business owner’s daughter in Karnataka has become the latest flashpoint between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress leader’s daughter was stabbed seven times by a former student of the college she studied at Hubballi. Police suspected he murdered her because she rejected his advances.

Neha Hiremath, 23, is a first-year Master of Computer Applications student and Fayaz Khondunaik is her former classmate. Faiyaz stabbed her multiple times, according to a senior police officer, and she claimed during interrogation that the two had been in a relationship but that she had recently been avoiding him.

The issue has snowballed into a political battle between the ruling Congress party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. While the ruling party tried to take it personally as an incident, the BJP said it showed the deterioration of law and order in the state.

Union minister and BJP candidate Pralhad Joshi suspected a love jihad angle behind the incident.

He claimed that law and order had completely deteriorated under the Congress regime and urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to stop minority appeasement politics and special treatment of “particular communities”. However, Home Minister Parameshwara said there is no “love jihad” angle at the moment.

Adding to the state’s troubles is the fact that the girl’s father has also termed the crime a case of “love jihad”. Congress MP Niranjan Hiremath alleged that the accused planned to “trap his daughter”.

“The gang had been plotting for a long time. They planned to either trap her or execute her. They had been threatening her in this context. However, the girl did not heed their threats,” Mr Shiremas told the media.

“The entire state and the entire country witnessed what happened to my daughter. If they say it’s a private matter, what’s so personal about it? Are they my relatives?” he added.

Love jihad spreads, take care of your daughter: Kataka Kang and murder victim’s father pic.twitter.com/i6eXX5Jjom

— IANS (@ians_india) April 19, 2024

Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi also launched a scathing attack on the Congress government in the state, saying the C in the party’s name stood for “corruption, crime and communal violence”.

The BJP MP told news agency ANI: “It is an important responsibility for any government to ensure that our children receive proper moral and ethical lessons in schools. Even the people should have the necessary responsibilities in this regard know.”

“People should have faith that the laws and mechanisms of the state will ensure that those who have done wrong are brought to book. However, the Congress has completely failed in this regard (in Karnataka),” she added.

The Congress party countered that the state had the best law and order and the BJP was trying to impose Governor’s rule in Karnataka.

“BJP is trying to threaten us… Karnataka has the best law and order… They want to tell the voters that they will impose governor’s rule. This is what Ashoka (BJP leader and leader of opposition) said Do. Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said: “They want to secretly bring the state under the Governor’s rule and that’s why they are doing all this. “

A large group of right-wing activists also protested and shouted slogans outside Vidya Nagar police station in Hubballi. Similar protests were reported elsewhere demanding harsh punishment for the accused Muslims.