A file photo of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah meeting businessman Vijay Eswaran | Express
BENGALURU: The controversy over the `70 lakh Hublot wristwatch gift returned to haunt Siddaramaiah amid the poll battle, with the BJP accusing the Chief Minister of accepting an expensive gift from absconding businessman Vijay Eswaran in 2013 and not disclosing it so far. Raising the issue here on Sunday, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra asked Siddaramaiah why he met the businessman and wanted the Chief Minister to disclose whether or not he received any costly gift from the businessman.
The Sri Lankan businessman based in Malaysia who is heading the QI Group of Companies, which include Goldquest International, Questnet and Vihaan Direct Selling, are the front and shell companies of QI group. He had been declared an absconder in 2009. The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) had filed a detailed report in which fraud, cheating, illegal money circulation and money laundering activities of the said companies were exposed, according to Patra.
As per SFIO report, illegal activities of these firms are a threat to national security. “Siddaramaiah met Vijay in China in September 2013 and invited him to participate in Global Investors’ Meet conducted in Bengaluru,” Patra said. Accusing Siddaramaiah of receiving an expensive gift then from Vijay, the BJP spokesman posed five questions to Siddaramaiah and sought his reply.
THE 5 QUESTIONS
Mr Siddaramaiah, did you meet Vijay Eswaran in China
in 2013?
Did you (Siddaramaiah) receive an expensive gift from Vijay?
Was it a watch?
If your answer is yes, then was it a Hublot watch?
Have you declared this costly gift in your Assets and Liabilities affidavit filed with you nomination papers for Assembly election?
I don’t know who Vijay Eswaran is: CM
Siddaramaiah, who was campaigning in Mysuru, brushed it aside when his attention was drawn to Sambit Patra’s posers. “I do not know who Vijay Eswaran is,” he said. When pressed for a reaction, he just said, “I will not reply to these lies.” It may be recalled that Siddaramaiah had come under intense fire for possessing a Hublot wristwatch, which he said Dubai-based friend Dr Girish Chandra had given him. He later gave it up, and it is now kept in the Cabinet hall of Vidhana Soudha as a state property.
