Bengaluru: It seems there is no end to controversies surrounding major irrigation minister DK Shivakumar, who is presently camping in Ballari city for the by-election campaign.

On Monday, he hit headlines for touching the feet of three dead bodies of children who drowned in a lake.

On Sunday evening three children identified as Yarriswamy (13), Bharat Reddy (13) and Harshavardhana Reddy (12) drowned in a farm pond in Korlagundi village while swimming. Their bodies were sent to the VIMS, Ballari for the postmortem and the procedure was completed on Monday morning. After the procedure, the bodies were kept in the VIMS mortuary.

DKS, who came to know about the incident visited the mortuary and touched the feet of all the three bodies beside offering floral tribute.

This has now stoked a new controversy because the local belief goes against the act as it is said that touching feet of the dead prevents the soul from entering heaven.

The minister has been in news for one reason or the other, the recent one being his apology saying that it was a blunder committed by his party by playing a role in Lingayat separate religion tag issue.