BELAGAVI, HUBBALLI: The newly elected MP from Belagavi, Jagadish Shettar, and Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution, and Consumer Affairs, and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi, hit out at the State Government on Friday, saying it was targeting former CM BS Yediyurappa in the POCSO case for political reasons.
“The POCSO case against Yediyurappa was registered three months ago. But the Congress government is raking it up again now needlessly, and is indulging in politics,” Shettar told reporters in Belagavi.
Shettar, a former CM, said that when the issue cropped up three months ago, Karnataka Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara had said that the woman complainant had lodged similar complaints against 40–50 people in the past and that she was mentally unstable.
The State Government should stop indulging in politics merely to target a veteran politician like Yediyurappa, he added, adding that a conspiracy is being hatched against the former chief minister.
Shettar hit out at the State Government saying it was trying to divert people’s attention by raising such issues to hide its failures. “The government is in a quandary ever since minister B Nagendra resigned over the ST Corporation row,” he added. Shettar said the woman who lodged a complaint against Yediyurappa is no more, and the victim has not lodged an individual complaint.
Pralhad Joshi also alleged that the Siddaramaiah government was trying to arrest Yediyurappa just to divert the public’s attention from the alleged irregularities in the Karnataka Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.
Speaking to reporters in Hubballi after becoming a cabinet minister in the Modi cabinet, Joshi said that the act of the State Government “proved its indulgence in politics of vengeance.”
“Since the ST Corporation case is likely to embroil CM Siddaramaiah, the government has resorted to hate politics by initiating action against Yediyurappa,” he said.
“Earlier, Home Minister G Parameshwara said that there is no truth in this case. Now the court has been requested to issue a non-bailable warrant, which means that the government itself is involved in this and is doing hate politics. If they think their act will crush the BJP and Yediyurappa, we will rise again,” he added.