Kalaburagi, 21 Nov

Chittapur BJP leader Manikantha Rathod was arrested near Shiraval in Afzalpur taluk on Thursday in an assault case and remanded to judicial custody. 

Police said Rathod allegedly led a group that assaulted Rasheed Dastagir Inamdar Mutya of Narayanpur village, his driver Zubair and another man, Bhagesh, during a confrontation near the Hazrat Imam Khasim Dargah. Rathod had accused Rasheed Mutya of cheating devotees and collecting money and jewellery in the name of the dargah. A scuffle broke out during the protest, leaving the three men injured and shifted to Kalaburagi District Hospital. 

Rathod has faced previous controversies. In October, he was booked for allegedly threatening Minister Priyank Kharge during a press conference, where he warned that RSS volunteers could “barge into Kharge’s house.” Police registered a case under multiple sections of the BNS after videos of his remarks circulated online.

He was also earlier booked for allegedly making inflammatory statements targeting the Muslim community in a viral video, in which he called for retaliatory violence. Rathod has multiple past criminal cases, including rice smuggling under the PDS scheme, and had previously been barred from Kalaburagi district.