BENGALURU: A businessman and a realtor filed a complaint against the JD(S) state president and Union Minister for heavy industries and steel H D Kumaraswamy and former MLC Ramesh Gowda, for alleged extortion and death threats.
The Amruthahalli Police on Thursday registred the FIR against him numbered 292.
In the FIR, Vijaya Tata, a businessman and relator, in the complainant named Ramesh Gowda as accused number-1 and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy as accused number-2, alleging that they demanded Rs 50 crore from the complainant (Tata) and issued life threats.
According to the complaint, Gowda visited Tata's house on August 24, this year. After a casual talk, the latter mentioned for the Channapatna by-election, for which Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of H D Kumaraswamy, was elected.
During his visit, he called Kumaraswamy and mentioned that he is in Tata's house and handed the phone to him to talk with the Union Minister. During the conversation, Kumaraswamy stated that for the Channapatna by-election, Tata needed to pay Rs. 50 crore for election expenses, which he claimed was necessary for their victory.
Tata responded, "Sir, I don't have that much money; I need to calculate my real estate projects." Kumaraswamy became angry at this response and threatened, "If you don't prepare Rs 50 crore, I don't know what I will do. If you run a real estate business in Bengaluru, it will be difficult for you to live here." During this conversation, Ramesh Gowda, who was present, insisted that Tata prepare Rs 50 crore. He also mentioned that he was building a temple and a school and requested Rs 5 crore for those projects, warning, "If you don't give this money, you will face problems." The police have registered a case under section 308(2) (extortion), section 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and section 3 of the BNS.