Karnataka: Slain BJP leader P Nettaru’s wife loses her job with change in govt; following outrage CM appoints her back

The grand old party Congress returned to power in the Karnataka assembly elections of 2023. Amid numerous unjustifiable decisions, the party has decided to withdraw the temporary appointments made in the government services by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

With this decision, the wife of slain BJP worker Praveen Nettaru will also lose her job. Nutan Kumari was appointed a group-C post after the death of her husband. Her job was contractual, she was appointed in the office of former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in the Dakshin Kannada district’s Mangaluru. The BJP government had on September 22, 2022, issued her appointment letter.

After a huge public outcry, the Congress government under Siddaramiah in Karnataka has clarified that wife of Praveen Nettaru, Nutan Kumari, will be reappointed. Asianet Suvarna news has reported that the Congress government has taken this decision on ‘Humanitarian grounds’.

The appointment letter issued to her mentioned that she will continue to serve in the office until the tenure of the present Chief Minister or till further orders. She was notably, appointed as an assistant in the Mangaluru Deputy Commissioner’s office, under the Chief Minister’s relief fund’s section.

IANS reported that removing the temporary staff with the change of government is a very common process and Nutan was treated no differently. Like other staffers, she was also terminated immediately.

Following the outrage, Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “It is a natural process for temporary employees to be terminated when a new government comes. It’s not just Praveen Nettaru’s wife, some 150 contractual workers have been terminated,” Siddaramaiah said in a statement. “Nootan Kumari will be reinstated on humanitarian grounds considering it a special case”.

The CM clarified that there was no government interference in Nutan Kumari losing her contractual employment.

Back on July 26, three people had come in a vehicle and hacked 32-year-old Nettaru to death outside his chicken shop off the Puttur-Sullia Road at Bellare in Mangaluru. During the investigation, the state police found out the role of PFI, and the matter was handed over to the NIA following an order issued by the Counter Terrorism and Counter Radicalisation division of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Praveen Nettaru was killed in full public view with lethal weapons to create terror among the people at large, especially among members of a particular community. The banned outfit PFI formed secret teams called ‘Service Teams’ or ‘Killer Squads’ to carry out killings of its ‘perceived enemies’ and targets as part of its agenda to create terror, communal hatred and unrest in society and to further its agenda of establishing Islamic rule in India by 2047.

It is pertinent to mention that, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) announced Rs 5 lakh cash reward on 2 members of the banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) wanted in the murder of BJP’s Yuva Morcha leader Praveen Nettaru.

The reward was declared against Kadaje Mohammed Sherif, 53, and Masud KA, 40, both residents of the Kannada district in Karnataka.

Besides involvement in Nettaru’s murder, the PFI cadres are also accused of involvement in several terrorist acts and the murder of several members of RSS and BJP, including Sanjith (Kerala, November 2021), V-Ramalingam (Tamil Nadu, 2019), Nandu (Kerala, 2021), Abhimanyu (Kerala, 2018), Bibin (Kerala, 2017), Sharath (Kamataka, 2017), R Rudresh (Kamataka, 2016), Praveen Puyari (Karnataka, 2016), and Sasi Kumar (Tamil Nadu, 2016).

Back in August 2022, Chief Minister Bommai told media, “The police have been given a free hand in the investigation of the Praveen Nettaru murder case. The investigation is in progress. The killers would be nabbed very soon,”

“The NIA has already been intimated informally. They are engaged in gathering preliminary information in Mangaluru and Kerala,” Bommai said.

Recently, Shafi Bellare, one of the accused was arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in relation to Praveen Nettaru’s murder case. The NIA’s charge sheet alleges that the SDPI candidate did the reconnaissance of Praveen Nettaru’s home and provided information about his activities.