My daughter was ‘forced’ to convert, K’taka police acted like a ‘puppet’: Neha’s father

Hubballi, (Karnataka) April 22 Niranjan Hiremath, father of Neha Hiremath, on Monday alleged that his daughter was forced to convert and that the Karnataka police are behaving like a puppet of the state government.

“The Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Renuka Sukumar is behaving like a puppet. It’s been four days since my daughter was murdered. We filed a complaint that same day and the autopsy was conducted. However, no action has been taken yet. Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar, who came to visit us, had called Police Commissioner Renuka Sukumar to our residence and directed her to take action,” Niranjan said while talking to the media.

Niranjan, who is also a Congress corporator, alleged that police commissioner Renuka Sukumar has not taken any action yet despite orders from a minister.

“They (police and police commissioner) just say ‘we are behind you’ and say ‘don’t worry’ but they take no action. They have not even bothered to take information from us,” he alleged.

He said he has been mentioning all the names of the suspects in the case for the past four days but no one is listening to him.

“It is not possible for such a brutal murder to be committed by one person. He (suspect) comes from a place 100 kilometers away and committed the crime in broad daylight on the university campus. This happened after good planning. It is impossible to commit such a crime on your own,” he claimed.

He said there were informants just outside the gate into the campus who informed the suspect about Neha’s movement. “The students, group members within and outsiders passed on the information and ensured that Neha was killed,” he said.

He added that the police need to investigate Neha’s call records, but they have not done so yet.

About the alleged conversion, Niranjan said that the accused had been trying to convert Neha for at least two years, which she always resisted.

“After being informed of the conversion intentions, Neha distanced herself from the suspect and resisted him. She then stopped responding to the suspect. I checked all the messages Neha myself. What more proof do they want? We know that an attempt was made to convert her,” Niranjan said.

He alleged that wrong information is being passed on to the Home Minister and the Chief Minister about the case.

“The police commissioner should be immediately transferred and the case transferred to the special wing of the investigation department. I have requested BJP president JP Nadda to transfer the case to the CBI,” he said.

Niranjan said he suspects he will be harmed for making statements against the government. “The Prime Minister and the Home Minister must provide us with police protection,” he said.

Neha Hiremath, MCA student, was stabbed to death by Fayaz Kondikoppa on the college campus in Hubballi. The suspect was arrested by students and handed over to the police.

Home Minister G. Parameshwara said the accused and the deceased were in love, while Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said it was not a case of love jihad.

Niranjan Hiremath has maintained that the victim’s family would commit suicide if the state government tinkered with the investigation.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor