Bengaluru police on Saturday detained BJP MLA from RR Nagar N Munirathna for harassing a BBMP contractor for bribe, using casteist slurs, cheating, criminal intimidation and insulting a woman’s modesty. Two cases have been registered against him.
A highly placed source in the Bengaluru city police told DH that Munirathna was picked up from Nangli village in Kolar’s Mulbagal around 5.30 pm. A police team ferried Munirathna to Bengaluru on Saturday night and he was questioned in the city.
Munirathna was elected from RR Nagar constituency in the 2023 Vidhana Sabha election, representing the BJP for the second time. He also served as Minister of Horticulture and the Planning, Programme Monitoring, and Statistics Department between August 2021 and May 2023.
Both FIRs against Munirathna were filed at Vyalikaval police station on Friday night. The first FIR accused Munirathna of harassment for bribes, criminal intimidation, cheating, and voluntarily causing harm.
In the second FIR, he has been booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and IPC sections dealing with provocation to commit a riot, promoting enmity between different groups, and intention to insult the modesty of a woman.
The first FIR against Munirathna was registered by 44-year-old Chaluvaraju, a BBMP solid waste management and disposal contractor in RR Nagar ward. The complainant also names Vijaykumar, a government official; Abhishek, a secretary; and the MLA’s close aide Vasanthkumar in the FIR as the accused.
According to the FIR, the BJP MLA took Rs 20 lakh in 2021 from Chaluvaraju, promising to provide 10 auto tippers for waste management. Two days later, Munirathna also handed over to Chaluvaraju a copy of the recommendation letter he wrote to the BBMP Commissioner. However, the vehicles were not sanctioned by the BBMP.
Munirathna allegedly claimed that if Chaluvaraju didn’t act according to his interest and pay him a bribe of Rs 30 lakh, he would not let the latter work and would hand over the contract to someone else. “I am the MLA; I have the authority to do anything,” Munirathna threatened Chaluvaraju, according to the FIR.
The FIR detailed multiple incidents between June 2023 and August 2024 where Munirathna allegedly threatened Chaluvaraju and demanded a bribe. Besides abusing Chaluvaraju, Munirathna also used abuses involving the former’s family and mother. Chaluvaraju noted in his complaint that he had even considered ending his life.
In September 2023, Munirathna allegedly slapped the complainant. On August 15, 2024, Munirathna also passed a casteist remark on a former Bengaluru corporator, according to the FIR. The same corporator, Velunayakar, is the complainant in the second case.
In the second FIR, Velunayakar accused Munirathna of allegedly hurling casteist slurs against him. The FIR noted that Munirathna called on Chaluvaraju and allegedly asked him to not associate himself with Velunayakar because of the latter’s caste.
He reportedly pointed out Velunayakar’s caste as an insult, insulted the women in his family, and demanded that Chaluvaraju pay up the amount he had asked, according to the FIR.As the news about FIRs against Munirathna became public, Bengaluru police installed barricades around his house in Vyalikaval and deputed KSRP and a few sleuths to oversee the situation.