CID to investigate Hebbalkar, Ravi cases, says Parameshwara

Belagavi: Home Minister G Parameshwara on Tuesday announced that the cases pertaining to BJP MLC CT Ravi using a slur against Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar in the Council has been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CID). The incident had occurred on December 19, the last day of the winter session at Belagavi’s Suvarna Vidhana Soudha.

An argument had broken out between Congress ministers present in the House and BJP MLCs and Ravi allegedly called Hebbalkar a prostitute during the back-and-forth. Hebbalkar has since released an audio clip of the incident in which a voice purportedly of Ravi is heard uttering the words. Ravi had been arrested on the day even as Hebbalkar’s supporters tried to assault him. The BJP MLC claimed that the cops shifted him from one location to another and manhandled him. The Karnataka High Court ordered Ravi’s release on December 20. A case was registered against Ravi over Hebbalkar’s complaint on December 19 at the Hirebagewadi police station.

After a few days delay, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered over Ravi’s complaint that Congress workers tried to beat him up at the same station. Both cases have been handed over to the CID. Parameshwara made the disclosure to mediapersons at the Hubballi airport on Tuesday. “I won’t speak much on it. I have ordered a CID investigation into it. We can’t make statements when a probe is taking place,” he said. On the Council Chairman Basavaraja Horatti calling it a closed chapter, he said that an investigation was necessary.

“The police have to do its work. That is our duty. The Speaker will do his work,” he added. On the delay in the filing of the FIR against CT Ravi, he defended the cops. “They (the cops) had to navigate the obstacles, speak to the Speaker, take his opinions and doing things procedurally, there might be a delay. Things need to be done correctly,” Parameshwara said, adding that there had been contradicting accounts by Ravi, Hebbalkar and others and that the same needed to be probed.

Want probe without pressure: BJP MLC- While speaking to mediapersons in his native Chikkamagaluru, Ravi maintained that he was mistreated by the cops but accepted a probe by any law enforcement agency as long as it was done without political pressure. “They have given it to CID. If the department was going to work honestly, the Hirebagewadi police station was enough to deal with it. Only if they worked without any pressure, that is. Nothing else was necessary. If the CID works without pressure, they too can deliver justice. Even a police constable can do the same. However, under pressure, no justice can be had at the police station or the CID,” he said.