Mangaluru: What if Eshwarappa’s wife is raped?, MLC Ivan D’Souza retaliated on Saturday, in the wake of a statement of Eshwarappa, who earlier courted a controversy, saying the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister K J George would wake up to the rising numbers of rape cases only when their daughters are ‘raped’.

Speaking to the reporters on Saturday, Ivan D’Souza made this statement in reaction to the comment of senior BJP leader and former deputy Chief Minister Eshwarappa. The MLC demanded a public apology or that he face a criminal case against him at the High Court.

The MLC said, the number of rapes were more during the BJP tenure. When his own colleague had tried to rape his friend’s wife, what was the BJP doing? Where was Shobha Karandlaje?, he demanded to know.

Ivan D’Souza said the state government has never supported the accused in rape or sexual assault on women. “The government has made sure that the guilty are punished by implementing Goonda Act and arresting many accused under the Act. In fact a senior police officer in Bangaluru was thrown behind bars and was suspended for clicking pictures of girls on a cell camera in a café”, he added.

Corporators Praveen Alva, Shashidhar Hegde, MCC works committee president Ashok D K and others were also present.

However after sometime, Ivan called up another press meet and clarified that he didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s sentiments but just want to make the opposition understand how it feels to point fingers at someone’s personal life. I am saying this because, being a dignified leader he cannot raise question on women’s modesty.