BENGALURU: A “foot-in-mouth” moment of Minority Welfare and Wakf Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan left the state government embarrassed after he backtracked on his assurance on a possible CBI probe into the Anwar Manippady report on encroachment of wakf properties. During a debate in the Council, Zameer targeted BJP for not constituting a probe, before saying that he was willing to refer the report to the CBI for a probe.
Other Congress legislators, however, were quick to chime in against the assurance saying that the report was being questioned in court. Zameer — replying to a question by Arun Shahapur (BJP) — asked why the BJP state government had not taken action based on the report when it was presented during when it was in power.
“The report was presented when D V Sadananda Gowda was CM. Later, (during Siddaramaiah’s rule) the report was presented in both the Houses and also the Cabinet and was rejected,” he said. Zameer said he was willing to refer the case to CBI “as BJP should have referred it (when they were in power).” Abdul Jabbar (Congress), however, said promising a probe at this juncture might be sub judice. Zameer said he had not assured of referring the report to the CBI, but only that he would consider it. “You can check the House proceedings and confirm,” he said. Chairman Basavaraj Horatti said records would be verified.