Bengaluru : BJP leader K S Eshwarappa on Friday accused the State government of politicising the incident of sexual assault at Thirthahalli in Shimoga district and claimed that the government had been trying to protect the culprits as they were Muslims.

Addressing reporters, he said the Congress government was trying to please the Muslim community by protecting the culprits. This is the reason they have not been arrested so far. Even the Muslim community does not approve of such incidents, he added.

He hit out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister K J George for behaving “irresponsibly and doing nothing to prevent the increasing cases of rape in the State”.

Instead, the government is taking action against the people who are protesting against these incidents.

“This is an irresponsible government. Instead of taking action against the culprits, George has blamed the media for highlighting the incidents. And Siddaramaiah has tried to shield his colleague. George is not capable of being the Home minister. If Siddaramaiah has any self-respect, he should immediately sack the Home minister from the Cabinet,” he said.