Mangaluru:  A complaint was lodged with Mangaluru East police by all the three personal assistants of U T Khader who is a Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, against Muneer Katipalla, the state president of Democratic Youth Federation of India for levelling false allegations against them and attempting to defame the minister through social media.

It all started when Mr Katipalla claimed on his Facebook wall that a person claiming to be the PA of Mr Khader called Mangaluru jailor and asked him to take good care of NaMo Naresh, the prime accused in RTI activist Vinayak Baliga murder case, and shift him to a private hospital.

Mr Katipalla also claimed that when the jailor did not pay attention to the caller, the PA allegedly threatened the jailor with all sorts of “punishments”.

The three personal assistants of Mr. Khader; Praveen Kumar JP, Mohammed Libzeth and Vijaykumar in a joint complaint clarified that none of them had contacted Mangaluru jailor in connection with the arrest of NaMo Naresh.

Meanwhile, the jailor himself rubbished the allegations made by Mr Katipalla by clarifying that he did not receive any such call from the minister’s PA or anyone else.

Expressing shock over the allegations, Mr Khader said that the one who made the allegations should provide proof. “When I was informed about the Facebook post, I personally contacted the jailor and he was not even aware of the incident,” he said.

Mr Khader said that the DYFI leader had tried to defame him through false and baseless allegations in the past too. “The same person had once blamed me for the murder of an auto-rickshaw driver,” the minister recalled. He also urged to police to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations.

The complainants have urged the police to conduct an inquiry into the issue and take necessary action against Mr Katipalla for attempting to defame the minister and his personal assistants through Facebook posts.

On the other hand, Mr Katipalla has justified his Facebook post and alleged that Mr Khader had links with several Hindutva leaders.