Yeddyurappa orders judicial inquiry into Haveri police firing

Bangalore, Jun 15 (UNI) Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today announced a judicial probe into police firing in Haveri in which one farmer was killed and several others were injured.

Addressing newspersons here, he said the one-man commission headed by retired high court judge Jagannath Shetty would probe police firing on June 11 in Haveri district.

The state government had instructed the judicial commission to submit its report within four months.

Mr Yeddyurappa, while announcing the decision to apppoint the commission denied that the government had bowed to the pressure of opposition parties to order a judicial probe into the firing.

''I am ordering the judicial probe only to unravel the truth to find out who were behind the violent incident that culminated into police firing and to punish those who have erred in opening fire during farmers agitation. The decision of the government has nothing to do with the opposition parties demand on the issue,'' he said.

One person was killed in police firing in Haveri during violent agitation by farmers in protest against severe shortage of fertiliser in the state. Farmers in Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Haveri, Gadag, Chitradurga and Dharwad districts were up in the arms against the state government for the shortage of supply of chemical fertilisers. The situation turned worse in Haveri, when police opened fire on the agitating farmers after they allegedly indulged in arson, stone pelting and damaging public properties. Number of state owned buses were stoned and also set on fire by the agitating farmers.

The BJP government, which was rattled by the state-wide farmers agitation demanding fertiliser supply leading to violence blamed the opposition parties for 'hatching a conspiracy' to tarnish the image of ten-day old government.

Mr Yeddyurappa had also alleged that some leaders in the opposition parties had financed anti-social elements, who reportedly mingled during the farmers agitation and provoked the state authorities to act sternly.

The state government had immediately ordered an inquiry by Belgaum Divisional Commissioner into the Haveri incident and instructed him to submit a report within ten days.

However, both Congress and the JD(S), the two principal opposition parties and Farmers organistions sought a judicial probe into the incident and threatened to launch a state-wide agitation if their demand was not met with.

The Congress has called for a state-wide picketing at district headquarters tomorrow, while former Prime Minister and JD(S) president H D Deve Gowda, made a fervent appeal to the state government to order a judicial probe into the incident.

Mr Gowda also threatened to launch a state-wide agitation against the BJP government.

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