Kampli MLA J.N. Ganesh, who was booked for attempt to murder and criminal intimidation after he allegedly attacked Congress MLA for Vijayanagar Anand Singh, is untraceable.
Special teams have been formed to track him down. Mr. Ganesh allegedly assaulted Mr. Singh at a private resort near Bidadi industrial area where the Congress — worried about the BJP’s attempts to poach party members — where keeping MLAs together. Mr. Singh was injured and admitted to a hospital in Bengaluru.
The police, who conducted a spot inspection, took statements from the staff but were unable to trace Mr. Ganesh. “We tried to reach him on his phone, but it was off. We also contacted his family, relatives and friends, but in vain,” a senior police officer said.
The police are now waiting to record the statements of other MLAs who witnessed the brawl.
“Since they were all busy with funeral of Shivakumara Swami, we are waiting to take their statements,” the officer added.
In his statement, Mr. Anand Singh said Minister for Medical Education E. Tukaram, MLAs T. Raghumurthy from Challakere, S. Ramappa from Harihara and Tanveer Sait from Narasimharaja constituencies were present at the time of the incident and tried to stop Mr. Ganesh from attacking him.
Mr. Ganesh has been booked under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Anand Singh stable
The condition of Mr. Anand Singh, who sustained a black eye and blunt injuries following the brawl on Sunday, is stable. He is likely to stay in hospital for three more days till his pain subsides, said Umesh N., Medical Superintendent of Apollo Hospitals, Sheshadripuram.
“He is conscious, well-oriented, mobilised, and stable. We did a repeat scan on Tuesday and there is no internal bleeding or clot in his brain. All his parameters are normal,” the doctor said.
Although the ophthalmologist had on Monday ruled out any serious injury to the eye, he has pain and swelling around his right eye. “We will wait till the swelling in his eye settles before discharging him,” the doctor added.