BJP Leaders Detained During Protest Against Alleged Corruption in Karnataka Government

GG News Bureau
Bengaluru, 4th July. Several BJP leaders were taken into preventive custody by Karnataka police on Wednesday as they led a protest march to the chief minister’s office-cum-residence, alleging rampant corruption by the ruling Congress government in Karnataka.

Prominent party leaders, including BJP state president BY Vijayendra, Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka, and former ministers S Sunil Kumar, Araga Jnanendra, S Suresh Kumar, CN Ashwath Narayan, and CT Ravi, were joined by several MLAs and a large number of party workers. Despite heavy police deployment, the BJP leaders were unable to reach their destination and were detained.

The BJP has alleged a Rs 4,000 crore alternative sites (plots) scam in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), claiming that one of the beneficiaries is Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife, Parvathi. The party also accused the government of attempting to cover up a Rs 180 crore scam in the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, which allegedly led to the suicide of accounts superintendent P Chandrasekharan.

“There is rampant corruption going on in the Congress government. The MUDA scam in the chief minister’s home district Mysuru is much bigger than the scam in the Valmiki Corporation,” Vijayendra told reporters before being taken into preventive custody.

Ashoka demanded that the government hand over the MUDA scam to the CBI instead of assigning the case to a panel of IAS officers for investigation. He also called for the chief minister’s resignation.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dismissed the allegations as false and rejected the BJP’s demand for a CBI probe into the case. “I have already ordered an inquiry. The BJP has no moral right to make such demands. Why are they asking us to assign this case to the CBI when they did not hand over a single case to the investigation agency during their tenure in the state?” he told reporters.

Siddaramaiah explained that his wife received the alternative sites under a scheme introduced by the previous BJP government in the state. “The BJP leaders are charging that the policy of 50 percent developed land to be given to the land losers has been misused. To see whether any misuse has happened or not, we have ordered an inquiry,” he said.

The chief minister also stated that all the sites (plots) allotted by MUDA as alternative plots have been suspended. “Once these sites are under suspension, where is the loss to the government? We have transferred all the officers during whose tenure the alternative sites were distributed. We are getting it investigated by a senior IAS officer. We will initiate action once the report comes,” he added.