BENGALURU: Sleuths from the Central Bureau of Investigation, probing the phone-tapping case, are likely to summon Sharanagouda Kandakur, son of JDS MLA Nagangouda Kandakur of Gurmitkal. It is alleged that Sharanagouda’s phone was allegedly tapped during the Kumaraswamy regime in February 2019, during which a conversation between Sharanagouda, BJP leader Shivangouda Nayak and present Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa was recorded.
Sharanagouda is a close confidant of Kumaraswamy and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda. The former PM had even joined him in a protest last week in Yadgir.
Investigators believe that Sharanagouda is the key link between the phone intercepts and recording of the conversation between JDS and BJP leaders at a guesthouse in Devadurga. The CBI, while investigating the illegal phone-tapping case where several politicians’ phones were allegedly intercepted, found that Sharanagouda’s phone was also tapped.
According to sources, Sharanagouda’s phone was intercepted, and on Febraury 6, an audio was recorded in which BJP leaders allegedly tried to convince him to meet them at a guesthouse in Devadurga. According to a confirmed source, Kumaraswamy, suspecting that the Gurmitkal MLA might join the BJP, had allegedly tapped his son Sharanagouda’s phone and learnt about his conversation with BJP leaders.
It is after this that Kumaraswamy allegedly spoke to Sharanagouda and told him he had learnt about his conversations with the BJP leaders, and convinced him to meet Yediyurappa at Devadurga and record their conversation.
It was after this incident that a purported audio, allegedly of Yediyurappa, was released to the media. However, the particular audio tape case was never investigated, though Kumaraswamy, when he was the chief minister, initially ordered a probe by a Special Investigation Team and later dropped it.
The CBI is likely to question Sharanagouda about this case, and find out how Kumaraswamy and he managed to record the conversations on an audio clip.