Poojary charges state government of slapping cases against its critics

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, May 22, 2025: Former BJP councillor for Mangaluru City Corporation, Shwetha Poojary, has been booked for “criticising” police investigation of the murder of Suhas Shetty, a Bajrang Dal activist and a double murder accused, said Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Kota Srinivas Poojary, in Mangaluru on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters after releasing the BJP’s ‘chargesheet’ on the two-year rule of Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, the MP said Ms. Poojary is the new entrant in the long list of people who have been booked for criticising the government’s inaction.

 

 

Those booked include City South and City North MLAs D. Vedavyasa Kamath and Y. Bharath Shetty, respectively, Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja, Udupi MLA Yashpal Suvarna, activist Puneet Kerehalli, and Arun Ullal.

In the first post on her Facebook page, Ms. Poojary said that people will teach a lesson to the burqa-clad women “who helped assailants to escape from the spot” after the murder of Suhas Shetty, as police have “so far not taken any action” against those women.

In the second post, she criticised the district in-charge, Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, in a “demeaning way” for his statement that the BJP created many criminals during its rule.

    “The whole substance of the posts is the criticism of government’s action. She [Shwetha Poojary] was booked for criticising government’s work. I am not aware of the language used by her”

  -Kota Srinivas Poojary
  MP, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru

When pointed to the derogatory terms found in the two posts found on the Facebook page of Ms. Poojary, the MP said, “The whole substance of the posts is the criticism of government’s action. She was booked for criticising government’s work. I am not aware of the language used by her,” he said.

In the past two years, the Congress government has indulged in actions to divide people on communal lines. The government is embroiled in scams related to the allotment of sites pertaining to the Mysuru Urban Development Authority and the misuse of funds related to the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation. The MP said the government is also accused of illegally diverting ₹34,500 crore of SC/ST funds for the five guarantee schemes.

The government has stopped contributing its share, thereby denying the farmers a yearly sum of ₹10,000 under the Krishi Samman Nidhi programme. The 54 lakh farmers of the State now get from the Central government an annual sum of ₹6,000. The State government is not correctly implementing the Central government’s Jal Jeevan Mission of providing piped drinking water to households. Not a penny is being spent by the State government for improving rural roads, the Udupi MP said