The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
In Hubballi, a friendship, a murder and two sides in a poll campaign
AT THE family home in Bitnaal locality of Karnataka’s Hubballi city, sitting among friends and neighbours who have poured in to express their condolences, Congress corporator Niranjan Hiremath speaks of how “no daughter should suffer my daughter's fate”. Those gathered around him agree and soon, there are calls for the “killer” to be “shot dead in an encounter” and for “us Lingayats to stay united”.
On April 18, Hiremath's daughter Neha, 23, a first- year student of MCA ( Masters in Computer Application), was stabbed to death on her college campus, allegedly by her former classmate Fayaz Khondunaik, 23, who was arrested soon after the incident.
The horror of the killing, caught on CCTV cameras, has left the town shocked while sparking a political firestorm with barely two weeks to go for voting on May 7 in Dharwad constituency of which Hubballi is a part.
Since the murder, a steady stream of politicians have been visiting the family — from BJP national president J P Nadda and party leaders, such as their Dharwad candidate and Union minister Pralhad Joshi and state chief B Y Vijayendra, to Congress leaders H K Patil ( state Law Minister) and AICC general secretary Randeep Surjewala. While the BJP leaders were quick to call the killing a case of “love jihad”, a line the Hiremath family has since stuck to, the Congress government, while ordering a CID probe, has said the murder was over “personal matters”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, referred to the case during his recent rally in Bengaluru, saying “our daughters are being attacked” and asking voters to be alert to the “dangerous… thoughts and ideology being promoted by the Congress government”.
At the Hiremath household in Hubballi, Annapurna Jakkenkatti, who identified herself as a social worker and a former neighbour, told The Indian Express, “It's all a conspiracy. Those people couldn't tolerate that the Lingayats were all together, that this was a happy family.”
Neha’s father has publicly expressed his unhappiness over the pace of the probe ordered by his party's government in the state. On April 23, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah spoke over phone to Hiremath, following which the corporator apologised publicly to the government and police for criticising them.
The anger and despair at Neha's home, however, have not faded. “We were like friends,” says Neha's mother Geetha, talking of her first- born. “She was bold, smart, and so beautiful. She would drive me around Hubballi in our car — there aren't too many girls who drive in this city. Since she has left us, people have been coming round the clock. I haven't even had time to spend time with her memories,” she says, wiping an endless stream of tears.
On April 28, Neha’s mother was outside the campus, waiting to pick her up after one of her internal exams when she was killed.
Hiremath talks of a “larger conspiracy”. “The seeds of this conspiracy came from outside and were planted here, solely with the target of religious conversion,” he says.
According to the Hiremath family, Neha and the accused were “friends” only briefly and she rejected his proposal to marry him.
Since the murder, a number of photographs and videos have emerged on social media of Neha and Fayaz together. Neha's mother Geetha has lodged a cyber complaint alleging that fake social media accounts were created to show the two were in a relationship. Speaking to The Indian
Express, Fayaz's elder sister Nisha, an ayurveda doctor in Munuvalli in neighbouring Belagavi district, says, “It was in 2021- 2022, while they were in their second- year of BCA, that Fayaz told me that Neha and he were in love. I told him to focus on his studies and that Amma is unlikely to agree.” She says the family hasn't met Fayaz since the incident. “We are too traumatised. What do I tell him?”
A town in turmoil
The murder is the talk of the town in an area with a history of communal polarisation and where memories of the riots of 1994 — when six people were killed in police firing following communal clashes when BJP leader Uma Bharti attempted to hoist the Tricolour at the Idgah grounds — are still fresh.
“What happened to the family is sad. The Hiremaths are a priestly class among us Lingayats. This incident will surely have an impact on the election. Hindus should come together or India will no longer be a Hindu rashtra,” says Sidappa Biradar from neighbouring Belagavi district. An assistant manager with MRF Tyres, he is visiting Hubballi on work.
Yet, this time, there are many, both among the Lingayat population to which the Hiremaths belong, and the Muslims, who make up around 27 per cent of the population in Hubballi- Dharwad, who see this as a love story gone wrong.
At his home in Hubballi, A M Hindasgeri, veteran Congress leader and president of the Anjuman- e- Islami in Hubballi, says that as soon as they heard about the incident, he and other Muslim leaders went in a delegation to the police commissioner and asked for a fast- track court to be constituted. “The next day, 125 mutawallis and 30 ulemas went in a delegation to meet the girl’s father and consoled him. Girls from our institution carried out a dharna, Muslim shops were closed. We decided we won’t let hate win,” he says.
Sitting behind the counter at Basaveshwara Khanavali, a popular restaurant that serves the north Karnataka specialty of jowar rotis, Ravi Ganacharya, who identified himself as a relative of the Hiremaths, says, “Unfortunately, there will be politics played over this and it will be Advantage BJP. They don't need this issue this election, but they are playing long- term, with the next Assembly elections in mind. A family has lost their child and there's nothing more painful than that.”