Bengaluru: Amid growing demands for a CBI probe, Hubballi student murder case has been handed over to CID, said Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday, April 22. He said that a special court will be set up with aim of fastracking justice to Neha Herimath. 

Neha, the daughter of Congress Councillor of Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Niranjan Hiremath, was stabbed to death by her former classmate Fayaz Khondunaik on the campus of BVB College on April 18.

"We have decided to give it to the CoD (CID). We will set up a special court for it. Charge sheet has to be filed in a time-bound manner and the case has to be disposed off, so the special court," Siddaramaiah said on Monday. Responding to a question from a reporter, he said, "I have not been able to go to her (parent's) residence. Our district in-charge Minister and party workers had gone. Also H K Patil (Law Minister) is going. I will go when I go there (Hubballi)." 

Family Alleges Love-Jihad 

Neha Hiremath was allegedly killed by her acquaintance inside BVB college campus on Thursday after she allegedly rejected his proposal. The deceased Neha (23) was a first-year MCA student, while the accused 23-year-old Fayaz, a BCA dropout, has been arrested in connection with the incident, police said, adding that both of them were batchmates during their BCA course. The entire incident was caught on CCTV camera.

The murder case, which sparked widespread outrage, has snowballed into a political slugfest between the ruling Congress and opposition BJP. While the ruling party has tried to project it as an incident with a personal angle, the saffron party has called it a "love jihad" case and said it's a testimony of the deterioration of law and order in the state. Neha's father Niranjan has also alleged that Fayaz's parents were “provoking Neha to convert to Islam”, demanding a CBI probe into the matter.