Bengaluru: The ruling Congress and Opposition BJP traded charges on Sunday over the ongoing excavation in Dharmasthala, based on allegations of multiple murders, rapes and burials, particularly of young women and girls over the past two decades.
BJP state president B Y Vijayendra, leading a party delegation, visited Dharmasthala to pay obeisance to presiding deity Manjunatha Swamy and Annappa Swamy and sought the blessings of ‘Dharmadhikari’ Veerendra Heggade.
Vijayendra reiterated that the BJP has no objection to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the state government to probe the allegations, but demanded action against those spreading “false propaganda” about Dharmasthala.
“The BJP had never opposed SIT investigation by state government regarding the Dharmasthala matter. But now the issue is that the district in charge minister Dinesh Gund Rao has stated that due to the pressure of leftist groups, the state government was forced to constitute SIT,” the BJP state chief said.
He pointed out that Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar himself had acknowledged a “big conspiracy” behind the Dharmasthala episode.Vijayendra asserted that his party’s stand is “very clear.”
“We don’t want to interfere in this SIT investigation, but during the course of the SIT investigation, there is a lot of false propaganda in social media against Dharmasala Manjunatha Swamy and Annappa Swamy temple. We demand state government, our chief minister and home minister take up this propaganda very seriously and carry out a proper investigation,” he said.
He added that the allegations “cannot be a hit-and-run case.”