From correspondents in Karnataka, India, 10:32 PM IST
Karnataka's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is not covering up the death under mysterious circumstances of a party legislator's wife and there is no need for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Home Minister V.S. Acharya said Tuesday.
'There is no compulsion on the government to cover up (the death of Padmapriya, wife of BJP legislator from Udupi K. Raghupathi Bhat),' he told reporters here.
Padmapriya, 35 and a mother of two sons, was found hanging in a Delhi apartment June 15, five days after she went missing from Udupi on Karnataka's west coast.
Acharya rejected the demand of the opposition parties and women's organisations in the state for a probe by the CBI to find out whether Padmapriya committed suicide or was murdered.
'There is no need for a CBI probe,' he said, adding the state police is investigating the case.
Padmapriya's body was cremated at Udupi Tuesday morning.
The Karnataka police has not so far arrested any one in connection with her death. They are questioning Atul Rao, a childhood friend of Bhat, who is said to have arranged for the flat in Delhi and taken Padmapriya there.
'We have not arrested him (Atul Rao). We are still questioning him,' a top police official said.
Padmapriya's body was flown to Bangalore Monday night after an autopsy at New Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital. The autopsy is said to have concluded it was a case of suicide.
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After all, the sad episode of Mrs Padmapriya Bhat may be just an example of lust and crime, fitting in the rising trend especially common among the affluent and the (mis)educated people today in India.It is but natural that Karnataka wants this not to become merely politicised by being handed over to CBI which has come to be widely suspected to be a handmaiden of ruling powers at Centre which now also happens to be anti BJP.
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