Karnataka undecided on action in tape case

BENGALURU: The Congress government in Karnataka is undecided on whether to proceed against Union minister Anant h Kumar and BJP state unit president BS Yeddyurappa over a conversation the two purportedly had, where it was alleged the state unit 'paid money' to BJP national leaders when the party was in power in the state. For the record, Siddaramaiah told the media on Monday, "we are not interfering in this. The police will decide what to do with the case."

Yeddyurappa and Anant Kumar, meanwhile, accepted that the voices on the tape were theirs. "Let the Congress release the full tape and not edited version. The truth will come out then," said Ananth Kumar. Last February, five Congress ministers had released the tape of a conversation to allege BJP had 'indulged in corruption' by paying 'slush money' to its national leadership in 2008-2013. The informal conversation between the two BJP leaders at a BJP event was picked up by the microphone of a Kannada news channel.

Following the allegation, the CD was sent to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory by Bengaluru's cyber crime cell for verification. On May 7, a city court directed Ananth Kumar and Yeddyurappa to give voice samples. Last week, the FSL submitted a report to the cyber crime cell that reportedly confirmed the voice samples matched. The city police, however, is reportedly waiting for clearance of the Director-General of Police, RK Dutta, to move the case from cybercrime to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Government insiders claimed, "the two leaders are speaking of their allegation that Rs 1,000 crore paid by this government to the Congress high command and in that context refers to other payments. This needs to be handled with caution and timed correctly, particularly because we face assembly polls in 8 months."

A BJP insider, however, claimed that in the tape Anant h Kumar was heard telling Yeddyurappa about a phone conversation that he had with Siddaramaiah. According to this version, Kumar quoted Siddaramaiah as having told him, "you have paid your high command, we have also paid."