Nadda demands CBI probe into Hubballi college student murder

Hubballi (Karnataka), Apr 21 (PTI) BJP national president J P Nadda on Sunday demanded a CBI probe into the murder of 23-year-old college student Neha Hiremath here recently.

Neha, daughter of Congress corporator Niranjan Hiremath, was stabbed to death by her former classmate in the premises of her college in Dharwad on April 18 sparking widespread protests.

Nadda visited Neha Hiremath's house and offered condolences to her family. Later, he said the BJP will cooperate if the investigation of the case needs to be handed over to CBI so that the victim gets justice.

Addressing reporters, Nadda said, "I offered condolences to the family and came here to stand with them in this hour of grief." "From what I have heard from her (Neha's) father and the way her mother narrated the incident, it is such a heart breaking incident...," he added.

Condemning the incident, the BJP chief assured justice to the family of the deceased.

Taking exception to the statements made by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister G Parameshwara, he said it would "influence and "dilute" the probe.

If the state police was unable to handle the investigation of the case, Nadda said he would request the state government to handover the case to CBI.

"If the state government wants, they can refer the case to CBI and BJP will cooperate so that this innocent girl gets justice, humanity gets justice and such incidents do not recur in future... even her father has demanded for a CBI probe because he doesn't have faith in the state police and wants the investigation into the murder of his daughter to be transferred to the CBI," Nadda said.

The incident snowballed into a political slugfest between the ruling Congress and opposition BJP in Karnataka.

While the ruling party has tried to project it as an "incident with a personal angle", the saffron party suspects "love jihad" and said that it points to the "deterioration of law and order" in the state. PTI