BENGALURU: In an appeal to Assembly Speaker U.T. Khader by Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs H.K. Patil on Monday demanded rape accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Munirathna be placed under suspension by exercising his powers.
The demand to place Munirathna under suspension by Patil has been over MLA’s alleged caste abuse for which a criminal case has been lodged at Vyalikaval police station in Bengaluru city. Besides, the MLA, representing Rajarajeshwari Assembly seat in Bengaluru, is also charged with intimidation to a contractor demanding a bribe of Rs 30 lakh.
Munirathna has been remanded to 14-day judicial custody over alleged rape charge while the State Government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to investigate cases against the arrested BJP MLA.
In a letter to Assembly Speaker, Patil termed the caste abuse by BJP MLA does not deserve to be forgiven and pointed fingers at declining values in a democratic set-up and felt the need to constitute the Ethics Committee of the State Legislature in order to exercise control over the behavior of MLAs both inside and outside the Assembly.
By constitution of the Ethics Committee, Patil wanted the caste abuse charge against BJP MLA be investigated and suitable action be initiated against him, if found guilty. It is high time to act against MLAs over use of unparliamentary words by MLAs and Patil stressed the need to exercise zero tolerance to use of unparliamentary words by MLAs.
“The caste abuse (by BJP MLA) lowered the dignity of the Assembly,” Patil said in a statement and felt the need to initiate stren action in order to restore the dignity of the Assembly.
