Murder and mischief in Hubballi Premium

Neha Hiremath, a 23-year-old student, was stabbed to death on a university campus by her former classmate, Fayaz Khandunayak. The BJP leadership has been alleging that this is a case of ‘love jihad’, while the Congress has argued that the incident was the unfortunate result of a personal tiff.

It is the 13th day since Neha Hiremath, 23, was killed in Karnataka’s Hubballi. People trickle in and out of the Hiremaths’ compact two-storey house in Bidnal, a middle-class locality populated with people of various faiths. Some carry food in steel boxes: it is a tradition in north Karnataka to visit bereaved families with food and eat meals with them after offering condolences.

The visitors — friends, relatives, and acquaintances — all express horror that a young woman, the daughter of Congress municipal councillor Niranjan Hiremath, 50, suffered such a gruesome end. Neha was stabbed to death on a college campus by her former classmate, 23-year-old Fayaz Khandunayak, on April 18.

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It has been an exhausting day for the Hiremaths. The death of their daughter has occurred in the midst of the Lok Sabha elections and has turned into an important election narrative. Earlier, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, R. Ashoka, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accompanied by former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and MLA Mahesh Tenginakai, visited their home to offer condolences. As they streamed out, journalists gathered around them, close to two air coolers, under a shamiana, with a huge banner paying tribute to Neha in the backdrop.

Addressing the media, the BJP leaders spoke of lapses in police action. They promised to pressure the State government to act without delay and ensure stringent punishment to the accused. They emphasised the need for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to “bring out the truth about this case of ‘love jihad’” — a conspiracy theory propounded by Hindutva groups which claim that Muslim men are luring Hindu women into marriage on false pretences, in order to convert them to Islam. Niranjan, 50, who had already said he was satisfied with the progress of the investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), listened in silence.

After they left, Niranjan’s staff informed him that a minister would be visiting soon. An aide consulted him about the drafting of a letter seeking permission for a gun licence. The distraught father did not have a moment to grieve.

As Niranjan goes downstairs in the evening to see more visitors off, a gunman, provided by the Hubballi-Dharwad police, stands guard at the front door. Inside the hall, Niranjan’s wife Geeta, 43, sits on the sofa staring at her daughter’s garlanded portrait. Neha’s younger brother, Nihal, stays back to take care of his mother. “Although she was older, she was my friend,” says Nihal.