Railway minister DV Sadananda Gowda’s son Karthik Gowda has been booked under Section 376 (punishment for rape) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code by the Bangalore Police.
While the rumours regarding Bhartiya Janata Party leader and home minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj are still hot, another party leader’s son has landed in a soup too.
Railway minister DV Sadananda Gowda’s son Karthik Gowda has been booked under Section 376 (punishment for rape) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code by the Bangalore Police. Karnataka women’s commission too has issued a statement saying they are planning to issue a suo motu notice against Karthik.
Karthik was to be engaged to Rajasri near Kushalnagar in Kodagu district. But model-turned-actress Maithreya Gowda claimed that he had married and abandoned her. While speaking to the media she said that she met Karthik while her family was looking for a groom and on June 5, 2014 they both tied the knot. Although, she clarified that they both were seeing each other since May 8, 2014 “and became very good friends, following which Karthik married her.”
She filed a rape, kidnap and cheating complaint against him on Wednesday evening.
However, Gowda claimed that his son has been “falsely implicated” in the matter. “Law will take its own course. I will not interfere in the matter,” he said.
It should be noted that Rajnath Singh and son Pankaj are caught in a web of rumours where it has been alleged that he worked as a conduit for transfer of a middle level police officer started a chain reaction of rumours which do not have its source till date. Apparently, he was called for a personal audience by prime minister Narendra Modi for such improper conduct. The presence of such rumours in the air for a sustained period of more than a fortnight forced Singh to clarify in front of media.
“In the last 15-20 days, there have been continuous rumours in the air about me and my family. I thought rumours have no basis and these will end in some days. But I am seeing that these rumours are gaining momentum day-by-day. I want to assure the nation that the day allegations, even prima facie or even small, are proven against me or my family, I will quit politics and public life and sit at home….I have told this to the prime minister and party president Amit Shah when we were sitting together. They have expressed surprise over this and termed it as completely baseless,” Rajnath said in a hurriedly called interaction with journalists outside North Block.
Even the Prime Minister’s Office dismissed the charges as baseless.
Calling it motivated and malicious the statement said: “This has reference to reports appearing in a section of the media over the past several weeks, mentioning the Prime Minister, and referring to the conduct of some Union Ministers, and alleged misconduct of the Home Minister’s son.
“The reports are plain lies, motivated and constitute a malicious attempt at character assassination and tarnishing the image of the Government. Those indulging in such rumour-mongering are damaging the interest of the nation. These reports are strongly denied.”
But such rumours do more damage irrespective of their end result. While Rajnath Singh has lost considerable amount of his stature in party and government, Pankaj’s budding career has been jeopardized. Similar is the case with Karthik who is youth BJP leaer in Karnataka.
It seems the Narendra Modi government now needs to issue a direction to all its ministers to avert any more such incidences. For a prime minister who had delivered a charged speech on the Independence Day asking people to respect the females of the country and removing corruption from the government practices, series of such insinuations may spell doom.
The son problem of the party needs to be solved as soon as possible or the sun of the party will set soon.
