BS Yeddyurappa angry over Bengaluru cops' midnight knock

BENGALURU: A police team's midnight knock on the door of BS Yeddyurappa has threatened to snowball into a confrontation between the BJP and the ruling Congress. The knock, police sources said, was for NR Santosh, an aide of Yeddyurappa, in connection with an alleged attempt to kidnap the aide of another BJP leader, KS Eshwarappa. Police officers stayed for about an hour and left from the doorstep. Yeddyurappa has shot off a letter to the Bengaluru City police commissioner, alleging evidence in the case was being "created with mala fide intentions". On the night of May 11, a gang of five men had made an attempt to abduct NS Vi nay Kumar, media adviser to Eshwarappa, near Mahalakshmi Layout in north Bengaluru. Police had arrested four men soon after the incident, and the fifth accused, Prashanth Kumar alias Raja, was picked up on July 7. Police sources said the interrogation of the five kidnappers had led them to Santosh, Yeddyurappa's aide. Around 11.30pm on Saturday, a team of policemen led by ACP Badiger descended on Yeddyurappa's house in Dollars' Colony, near MS Ramaiah Hospital. They asked for Santosh, sources said, and were, in turn, asked if they had a warrant to arrest Santosh. They replied that Santosh's name had figured in the investigations and they wanted to question him. The team returned after an hour. Police in plainclothes, however, continued to keep a watch on Yeddyurappa's residence on Sunday. Santosh, according to sources, was still inside the house. A retired IPS officer was seen visiting Yeddyurappa's residence in the afternoon. The abduction FIR, sources said, was silent on the motive of the attempt. Yeddyurappa, in his letter to commissioner Praveen Sood, sought to give a clean chit to Santosh even as he said he had no intention of intervening in the investigation. The letter said: "It appears to me police officers are determined to fix Santosh as an accused in a case, in which, to the best of my knowledge, he is not involved. There was no need for the police to come to my house at midnight; they could have come during day and conducted proper inquiries."