Congress MLA JN Ganesh, on the run after allegedly assaulting fellow MLA Anand Singh during a brawl at a resort near Bengaluru, was on Thursday, 21 February, remanded to judicial custody till 6 March by a court in Ramanagara, reported The Times of India. Ganesh was apprehended by Karnataka cops in Sohna, Gujarat on Wednesday, 20 February.
According to the report, Ganesh was questioned at Bidadi police station, where the MLA reportedly confessed to attacking Singh in an act of self defence. According to Ganesh, Singh insulted his community, his wife and his mother.
The MLA will be lodged at Parapppana Agrahara central prison in Bengaluru, as per the request of Ganesh’s counsel not to be sent to the Ramanagara district prison, reported The Times of India.
After an alleged altercation at Eagleton Resort on 19 January, where the Congress party had herded its MLAs to keep them safe from BJP’s poaching efforts, Kampli MLA Ganesh has been missing from the public eye for a month now.
An FIR had been filed against him for criminal intimidation and intention to cause hurt, at the Bidar police station and cops had been on the hunt since.
Despite being served several whips by the Congress high command to present himself at the Legislature Party meetings, the MLA had remained absent.
Injured Anand Singh, MLA from Vijayanagara, had filed a case against Singh on 20 January, accusing him of assault. The Bidadi Police registered an FIR against Kampli MLA JN Ganesh for attempted murder and criminal intimidation.
In his statement to the police, Singh told police that on the night of 19 January, after dinner at the resort, Singh and Ganesh were walking to their respective rooms. At that time, Ganesh questioned Singh on why he did not apparently give enough money for election campaigning and started blaming him.
PTI had reported that according to sources, Ganesh was furious with Singh for foiling his plans to join the BJP by leaking information to the Congress leadership.
(With inputs from PTI)
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