BJP's Manikanta Rathod arrested based on law and order intel

Kalaburagi (K’taka), Dec 7 (PTI) BJP leader Manikanta Rathod was arrested on Thursday in a preventive measure, police said, as they received intelligence that a law and order problem could break out since they had found out that he had had allegedly spun an accident case last month into an attack on himself.

"We got the information that there will be a law and order problem in the district. Against this background we have ‘secured’ him. We will mention the intelligence message in the FIR,” Kalaburagi Police Commissioner R Chethan said told reporters.

In the May Assembly elections, Rathod had lost in the district's Chittapur constituency to Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge, who went on to become a minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet.

Rathod was taken into custody from an apartment.

"We have taken him into custody in view of the law and order situation. We will initiate whatever legal action is necessary," the commissioner said Last month, when an accident happened, he allegedly spun it into an attack on him. Kalaburagi police sources claimed that his arrest came after an investigation proved that he had cooked up a story about the accident to make it seem like he was targetted. PTI