Karnataka DSP suicide: CM Siddaramaiah rules out minister’s resignation

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. (File)

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday rejected demands for the resignation of his Cabinet colleague K J George, who has been booked by the CBI in connection with the suicide of Deputy Superintendent of Police M K Ganapathy in 2016. However, many top leaders of the Congress believe the case will give the BJP a handle to attack the ruling party in the run-up to the Assembly elections next year.

Even as the Opposition BJP threatened protests against the state government if George did not resign, the CM said, “Since it is an old FIR already registered… in Kushalnagar, there is no necessity and the situation does not warrant the resignation of George. When he resigned last year, George was the home minister, now he is the minister for Bengaluru. The question of him influencing investigations does not arise as the CBI is a central agency.”

Siddaramaiah was referring to the resignation of George in July 2016 after the original FIR was registered on the basis of a court complaint filed by Ganapathy’s son Nehal.

The CM said several ministers in the BJP government at the Centre, including Ananth Kumar Hegde and Ramesh Jigajinagi from Karnataka, had criminal cases against them. Also citing UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he said: “There are serious cases against so many ministers in the BJP. Why is their resignation not being sought? This is a politically motivated move of the BJP ahead of the state polls.”

The Congress high command has, for the time being, decided to go along with Siddaramaiah’s decision and the majority opinion in the Karnataka Congress, but many in the party are not convinced. “If the CBI arrests him, it will be a problem. I don’t know what they (state leadership) are up to. The BJP will use it in polls,” a Congress leader told The Indian Express.

The AICC’s Karnataka minders argued it was not a case of corruption and hence cannot be equated with cases against former Chief Minister and BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa. “He (George) had resigned once. Then the state CID investigated and gave him a clean chit. Now the CBI has registered a case. It is all political. We are confident of convincing the people of the state that it is a politically motivated case,” an AICC leader said.

“How can a minister harass a DSP…. We see it in the context of misuse of central agencies. We cannot surrender and bow to political vendetta,” the leader said. A meeting of top Congress leaders and ministers, he said, took place in the morning in Bengaluru and decided to back Siddaramaiah’s decision.