Karnataka BJP MLA Munirathna, arrested for allegedly harassing, threatening and hurling casteist slurs on a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike contractor, has been remanded in police custody for two days.
The Bengaluru police said they arrested Munirathna near Mulbagal in Kolar district on Saturday when he tried to flee to Andhra Pradesh after two FIRs were registered against him. The police brought him to Bengaluru. After a medical test, he was produced before a magistrate’s court, where the police sought his custody for a week but were granted only two days’ custody.
BBMP contractor Cheluvaraju alleged in his complaint that Munirathna, MLA for Rajarajeshwarinagar, had demanded Rs 30 lakh in 2021 over a solid waste disposal contract. However, although he paid Rs 20 lakh for getting 10 auto tippers for a waste management contract, the civic body did not give him the go-ahead.
Cheluvaraju further said the MLA had abused him verbally. Munirathna allegedly did not allow him to execute his work and even slapped him in September 2023.
Cheluvaraju recently released an audio recording where the MLA was purportedly heard abusing him for not paying the bribe, insulting women of his family and hurling casteist abuses at a Dalit corporator.
Munirathna was booked under SC and the ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Munirathna said in a video later that the allegations against him were “far from truth”.
For the last 15 years, there have been no allegations by a contractor or from the public that Munirathna has used derogatory language. After the Lok Sabha polls and results, conspiracies have been planned against me,” he said.
The MLA said conspiracies were made after he wrote a letter seeking an investigation into a complaint that irregularities of Rs 15 lakh were taking place in Devaraj Urs Truck Terminals Ltd every month.
“Anyone’s voice can be created…the technology is advanced. Their intention is to send me to jail. I knew bad days were awaiting me after the Lok Sabha poll results. It is a joint operation by the person who lost to me (Kusma H of the Congress) in the Assembly polls and D K Suresh (also of the Congress), who lost to Dr Manjunath (BJP candidate in the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency). Contractor Cheluvaraju has been used for it,” the BJP MLA said in the video.
Alleging that Cheluvaraju had filed SC/ST Act cases against 20 people thus far, Munirathna said he had not made any derogatory comment or spoken against people of the Vokkaliga or the Dalit community.
