BENGALURU: A day after BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa announced that they would release documents to expose corruption in the Congress government, BJP spokesperson Suresh Kumar launched a scathing attack on a minister in Siddaramaiah’s government.
He said they had evidence that a minister in Siddaramaiah’s government had role in the scam involving two senior officials, whose offices and residences were raided by the Income Tax Department officials recently.
Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd MD T N Chikkarayappa and Karnataka State Highway Development Project, Chief Project Officer, S C Jayachandra were suspended by the state government after the I-T department officials found more than `4 crore in new denominations along with other assets in their possession worth `152 crore.
At a press conference on Monday, Suresh Kumar, who refused to divulge the name of the Minister said he was the mastermind behind the scam. Minister directly called the bank official and insisted that cash in new denomination notes be given to the two officials.
“The two officials are cooperating with the investigations. They are giving out details of the people, who were involved in money laundering and also phone recordings of conversations with two ministers. Officials were in wrong company and very close to certain ministers. It is not difficult to wonder how they managed to grab plum postings,” he said.
“More skeletons would tumble out of the closet following the investigations of CBI and Enforcement Directorate(ED). Involvement of more officials, including IAS and IPS officers will also be exposed,” he added.
Calling the Public Works Department as ‘Pilferage without detection’ department, Kumar said it had become a centre of corrupt practices. He rubbished JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy’s allegations that the two officials were encouraged by the BJP, when it was in power.
Over senior BJP leader K S Eshwarappa’s participation in the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade convention being held in Nandagad of Belagavi on December 6, Suresh Kumar said BJP national general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Muralidhar Rao has already warned of disciplinary action against those who participate in the convention.
“This is the party’s stand. If any leader still participates in the convention, the High Command will take a decision and act against him. We have nothing more to add,” he said.