‘Evidence collected, victim will soon get justice’: Women’s panel chief on Hubbali murder

HUBBALLI: The victim of the Hubbali incident, 24-year-old Neha Hiremath, who was fatally stabbed by Fayaz Babasaheb Khondunayak on the BVB College campus in Hubballi, will get justice soon, said Karnataka Women’s Commission on chairman Naglakshmi Choudhary, while shedding light on the development in the case.

The State Women Commission chairman said that evidence in the case has been collected and that justice will be served to the victim soon after the reports of the DNA investigation are out. She said, “The police are investigating the case. All the evidence has been collected properly. Now the blood is gone for DNA investigation. Once it comes, within three months Neha will get justice”.

#WATCH | Hubballi, Karnataka: On the Hubballi murder incident, State Women Commission Chairman Naglakshmi Choudhary says, "The police are investigating the case. They are collecting the evidence. The government and the police, everyone wants Neha's accused should get punishment.… pic.twitter.com/wlIls7481H

— ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2024

Choudhary further said that everyone from the government to the police wants the accused to receive stringent punishment. “The accused is already in judicial custody. Neha’s parents are in a very bad state. Their only request is that the accused should get punishment as early as possible. They want him to get the death sentence”, she said.

The State Women Commission chief also urged the people to not use the victim’s name for personal benefits or politics, adding that defaming or accusing a victim is morally incorrect and a punishable offence.

“I request everyone, everybody, please don’t defame the girl who is no more. And killing or murdering one girl is not the end result of everything. Don’t use Neha for your personal benefit or politics. Accusing a woman is not right and it is a punishable offence”, said Chaudhary.

The murder of college student Neha Hiremath by her former classmate Fayaz has triggered a political row, with BJP terming it a case of ‘love jihad’, while the Congress party has denied the allegation. Demands for capital punishment for Fayaz, the accused, have led to protests across the state.

On April 19, Congress corporator and father of the deceased, Niranjan Hiremath claimed that his daughter met with the unfortunate fate and was killed for turning down the accused’s proposal. He said, “When my daughter was returning from college, an unknown person came and stabbed her seven times and she died on the spot. The accused has already been arrested. The motive of the murder is that the victim rejected the accused’s love proposal”.

The victim, Neha Hiremath, succumbed to multiple stab wounds inflicted by Fayaz, a former friend and classmate who has since been arrested. The last rites of the girl, who was killed on a college campus in Hubbali, were performed by her parents last Friday.

The Congress government in Karnataka is under severe pressure on law and order in the state after the 23-year-old daughter of a Congress corporator was stabbed to death on the college campus in Hubbali. The state unit of the ABVP and the BJP protested the murder in Hubballi, Belagavi, Bengaluru and other parts of the state last Friday and the issue is likely to flare up with the state going to the Lok Sabha Polls on April 26 and May 7.

Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Renuka Sukumar informed that an FIR was registered and the accused was apprehended within an hour and sent to judicial custody following the incident.

Neha (23), the daughter of Congress Councillor of Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Niranjan Hiremath, was stabbed to death on the campus of BVB College on Thursday. The accused, Fayaz Khondunaik, who fled the scene, was arrested by police subsequently. Neha was a first-year MCA student and Fayaz was her former classmate. (ANI)