Former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy has alleged that he had information that “political bigwigs” were behind the CD episode of former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi. The CD contains the former Minister’s intimate moments with a woman, who was allegedly promised a government job.
“Their intention was to get the Minister sacked, which has happened. Why would they care for the woman now?” he questioned.
He also alleged a “deal” was struck for ₹5 crore related to the CD release.
“It has been ongoing for the past three months now,” he said, refusing to elaborate further. Terming it “blackmail tactic”, he came down heavily on the complainant in the case, Dinesh Kallahalli, without naming him.
“A person publicly claims he has more such CDs of politicians, including a former Chief Minister. Isn’t this blackmail? The government needs to investigate such people, bring out the truth, and arrest them. It has been an embarrassment to all of us,” he said, adding similar rumours were spread about him in an earlier drug case too, but was later found to be false.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kallahalli who had sought time till March 9 to present himself before the police citing security concerns, surprised them and joined the probe on Thursday. However, he refused to give out any details beyond what he had said in his complaint, sources said. “He claimed the relatives of the woman in the CD approached him through a friend. He claimed he is unaware of the identity of the woman or her relatives and refused to disclose the identity of the friend who was the link,” a senior officer said.
In the dark
The only way the investigation can proceed is by tracking down the woman and record her statement, for which the complainant is not cooperating, a senior officer said.
“We are in the dark as to the place of offence, time of offence, and identity of the victim. In earlier cases, the account of a third person has been upheld to be enough to take up a case, but the third person has to be an eyewitness to the sexual harassment, which is not the case here. We are consulting legal experts on the way ahead, even as we are also independently investigating to track the woman,” the officer said.
