‘Victim of conspiracy’: Neha Hiremath’s father says old photos, videos being shared to defame her

HUBBALLI: Niranjan Hiremath, the Congress corporator and father of 23-year-old Neha Hiremath, who was stabbed to death by Fayaz Babasaheb Khondunayak on her college campus, on Wednesday alleged that old photographs and video clips of his daughter were being circulated on social media to divert public attention from the severity of the crime.

A political war of words erupted in the immediate aftermath of the murder, with the BJP accusing the ruling Congress of deliberately misleading the probe to protect its ‘vote bank’ and the grand old party claiming that the former was ‘politicising’ the incident ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Niranjan Hiremath, a sitting corporator of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, said, “Today marks the sixth day since my daughter’s death. While we struggling to come to terms with her loss, someone out there is posting old photographs of my daughter on social media, using fake IDs, to defame her even in death. We did lodge a complaint with the cyber crime police about this, but no step has yet been taken to prevent such attempts to dishonour my daughter”.

“It’s clear that some people are trying to sully my daughter’s image and standing in her and our known circles by putting out her old photographs on social media. I demand that those behind such attempts to defame my daughter be identified and taken to task at the earliest. This is all I ask of the government”, the bereaved father said.

He alleged that the motive behind the social media posts was to malign his daughter in death and divert public attention from the nature of the crime. “I urge the cyber police to stop the circulation of my daughter’s images at the earliest. My daughter wasn’t at fault. She was the victim of a conspiracy. Nobody should form misplaced opinions about my daughter on the evidence of the photos and video clips that are going viral now,” he added.

Reinforcing his conspiracy claim, Hiremath cautioned the youth, especially young girls, against placing their trust in people with ‘ulterior motives’. “I lost my daughter, but would urge the youth, especially all the young girls out there, not to fall for people with ulterior motives. They may appear to be like a family member at first, but would end up mistreating and misusing you”, he added.

Amid a massive political uproar, the Congress leader, earlier, demanded a CBI probe into her daughter’s killing claiming that the state police were trying to ‘divert’ their ongoing probe in the matter. He also demanded the transfer of the police commissioner, who is in charge of the case, for ‘negligence’.

“I gave the names of eight persons who I believe are behind my daughter’s death. However, they haven’t yet apprehended a single one of them. I am starting to lose faith in our police administration now. They are deliberately trying to divert the investigation. I demand that the case be transferred to the CBI if our police can’t do us justice. The commissioner, who is leading the investigation into my daughter’s death, also seems to be dragging her feet in the matter. She seems to be under some pressure to go slow. I demand that the commissioner be transferred for clear negligence in the case. The case should be handed over to the CBI without any further delay,” Hiremath told ANI on Sunday, last week.

Neha succumbed to multiple stab wounds inflicted by Fayaz, who was arrested in an hour of the incident. (ANI)