Former Minister arrested on charges of criminal intimidation

BJP leader and former Minister B Sriramulu was arrested by the police for threatening Congress leader Anil Lad with dire circumstances if the contested from Bellary assembly constituency in Karnataka in the coming polls.

Sriramulu’s arrest came after Lad lodged a complaint with the police that his house was attacked and his vehicles were burnt by a group of BJP supporters, minutes after the former Minister came to his house and asked him to leave Bellary on Friday.

Superintendent of Bellary district police Amrit Paul told reporters that Sriramulu himself surrendered before the Cowl Bazar police station on Saturday after learning about the complaint lodged by Lad. “The offence being bailable, Sriramulu was immediately arrested and later released on bail”, Paul said.

The police had also arrested about 20 persons in connection with the attack on the house of Lad, a mine owner, who had recently quit the BJP and joined the Congress party. “All the 20 were produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody till May 2”, Paul said.

Earlier, Lad had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that about 30 to 40 persons, shouting pro-BJP slogans hurled stones at his residence, damaging the windowpanes, and later torched three cars parked outside the house.

Lad told reporters that Sriramulu, who was the Tourism Minister in the JD (S)-BJP coalition, came to the house on Friday evening minutes before the attack. “Though I went outside to receive him, Sriramulu began threatening me without any provocation. He asked me to leave Bellary or face the consequences. But, within minutes after his departure, a group of people, shouting pro-BJP slogans, attacked my house and set fire to three cars parked in front of my house”, Lad said.