Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SB/SP)
Mangaluru, Jan 5: Minister of food and civil supplies U T Khader on Friday January 5 condemned the murder of Deepak Rao at Katipalla, and denied any links with the accused in the case, as claimed by some on social media.
Addressing a press meet here, Khader said, "I strongly condemn the murder of Deepak Rao. The government has given the police all rights to crush the miscreants. The police did a very good job in nabbing the accused within hours of the murder.
"The financial help will not suffice to bear the loss the family has faced. We are all with Deepak's family. Apart from the Rs 5 lac as compensation declared by the deputy commissioner yesterday (Thursday January 4), we are planning to do more for the family financially," he said.
Urging the people of the district to maintain peace, he said, "I appeal to the people, the political parties and various organizations and outfits to avoid separatism and divisive politics. We need unity in society. Dragging the incident will help the real culprits escape from law."
Commenting on the viral photo of him with a member of the notorious 'Target' group of Ullal, who is said to be an aide of Pinky Nawaz, the main accused in Deepak's murder, Khader denied any links with the man in the picture and the group. "A picture of mine is going viral on social media and news media. I do not have any connection with the 'Target' group of Ullal. Some one clicked that picture with me. It is difficult to make queries about people when they want to click pictures.
"As per my knowledge there was a 'Target' group in Ullal before, but it does not exist now. Police and locals of Ullal demolished their office months ago. Later the group shifted to Katipalla," he added.
"The allegation against me about connection to Target group is baseless. At the time of Zubair murder also, similar allegations were made against me. It is only for politicial gains. Do not believe such fabricated stories," Khader asserted.
It may be mentioned here that a picture Khader taking part in a feast in which Illyas, a member of the Target gang too participated has gone viral in social media. It is learnt that last year, Illyas had contested as a candidate for the post of the president of the party's Mangaluru assembly constituency unit. Khader had advised the party not to field him as candidate. Illyas contested anyway but tasted defeat. Later, he had been arrested in connection with a case. He had been expelled from the party the very next day. Khader dismissed rumours of his connection with Ilyas and said that he could not be held responsible if a person sits in the same row as him in a marriage and clicks pictures. There should be a limit for malicious propaganda, and no one should behave irresponsibly," he said.
Regarding demand to ban PFI and other outfits, Khader said, "The central government should take necessary steps to ban or control PFI and other communal organizations that are engaged in disturbing peace in society. These organizations are operating at the national level. If only Karnataka bans them, they can still operate from Kasargod, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu border areas. Hence banning them would be of no use. We need to ban them at the national level."