Karnataka Minister sparks controversy for allegedly badmouthing female IPS officer

TUMAKURU: While the funeral of the 111-year-old Sri Shivakumara Swamiji went off smoothly and peacefully, the tourism minister in the Congress-JD(S) led alliance government Sa Ra Mahesh sparked a controversy after he allegedly 'abused' a woman IPS officer for not letting him inside the building where the 'kriya samadhi' was underway on Tuesday evening.

While Central Range IGP B Dayananda had made a list of select peoples' representatives to be allowed inside the building, the visit of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy led to his cabinet colleague minister Venkatarao Nadagouda trying to follow him inside which was not successful. The tourism minister, however, forced his way inside which was objected by the IPS officer Dr Divya V Gopinath. Getting annoyed over this the K R Nagara JD(S) MLA took offense and allegedly badmouthed the officer.

Private TV channels telecast a video in which the minister can be seen arguing with the officer but the audio feed is not sufficient to determine the language used. At the end of the video, the officer can be seen breaking into tears and is being consoled by minister SR Srinivas who asked her not to make an issue out of the matter with folded hands.

Sources said the police had let some of the persons into the venue who were not on the list and the chief minister H D Kumaraswamy too knew about it. The CM, while reacting to the issue has defended the minister and said that the police should have let him inside. " When some small (unimportant) persons were allowed inside objecting to my cabinet colleague is an insult to me", he told reporters in Bengaluru.

"Some of the members of BJP who were not in the list were also allowed inside which the CM might have observed," a source told TNIE.

The officer has served as the superintendent of police of Tumakuru till recently when she was sent on requested leave but had returned from her native Kochi to help with security arrangements as she knew about the city having served for some time there. Speaking to reporters Divya said that she would not take the incident seriously as such flare-ups were inevitable during events held on such a massive scale.  

The central range IGP while speaking to reporters clarified that he was not aware of the incident and would react only after getting information in detail.