Congress councillor Niranjan Hiremath, father of Neha Hiremath, who was stabbed to death in Karnataka’s Hubballi on April 18, said that his daughter’s murder should not be used for political gains. 

Addressing the media on Thursday, May 2, along with other Congress leaders such as Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar in Belagavi, Niranjan said that people cutting across political parties protested after she was murdered. 

A man named Fayaz stabbed Neha Hiremath to death on April 18, on the premises of the college she studied in, sparking outrage across the state. However, in the days since, the ABVP and the BJP have made it an election issue, claiming that the murder was a case of “love jihad”. 

Soon after Neha’s murder, her father had also claimed that his daughter had been killed because she resisted “love jihad”. 

Niranjan said that due to the efforts of Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar the government had taken swift action and the case had been given to the CID. 

To a question on photos of Congress leader Channaraj Hattiholi felicitating Fayaz doing the rounds on social media, Niranjan said that politicians are often invited to felicitate people and that they don’t always know who they are. “How do we know whether someone we felicitate will go on to be good individuals or criminals? But misusing such photos for politics is wrong,” Niranjan told media.