‘It’s Human Tendency’, Says Kumaraswamy After Video Goes Viral

The video was recorded at the crime scene, Mandya district, hours after the killing of the party leader.

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. 

(File Photo: IANS)

A day after his comments over the murder of a Janata Dal (Secular) leader fuelled controversy, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Wednesday, 26 December, said that the reaction was a result of "human tendency" and that it was not a "big issue".

According to ANI, Kumaraswamy said, “That isn't a big issue, that's human tendency, in that kind of situation, any human being will react like that.”

“I have clarified it already, that’s why I changed the word also, I’m an emotional person.”

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy

On December 24, a video went viral where the chief minister could be seen telling someone on the phone: "He (murdered JDS leader Honnalagere Prakash) was a good man, I don't know why they murdered him. Kill them (assailants) mercilessly in a shootout, no problem."

The video was recorded at the crime scene in Karnataka’s Mandya district hours after the killing of the party leader.

According to The News Minute, the chief minister's office said he had condemned the killing and the "emotional" phone call was not a direct order to the police. On 24 December, assailants hacked the JD(S) leader to death after they chased his car in broad daylight.

Prakash was on the Mysuru Road in his car when bike-borne miscreants stopped his car, opened the door and hacked him to death with a machete. A case of murder has been registered at the Maddur Police Station, according to TNM.

Prakash was left in his car and was discovered by onlookers, who immediately called the ambulance. He was then rushed to Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences.

The officials at the hospital said he was alive when he was brought to the hospital, but he later succumbed to his injuries. His killers had brutally hacked his arms and neck.

The police also said that the murder may have been an act of revenge.

(With inputs from ANI, The News Minute)