MYSURU: Former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy claimed on Friday that blackmailers had demanded Rs 5 crore from Ramesh Jarkiholi before releasing an alleged video recording of him.
“I have credible information that a Rs 5-crore deal was struck. The video was leaked after the deal went awry. The police should investigate and arrest the blackmailers; everything will come out in the open then,” the JD(S) member said. He did not provide any material to support the claim.
Jarkiholi quit as the water resources minister on Wednesday after activist Dinesh Kallahalli filed a complaint accusing him of sexually exploiting a woman after promising her a job at Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited.
Kallahalli said that the woman’s family sought his help to get justice last week.
Kumaraswamy said many activists had made claims about possessing sex CDs of politicians and that such people should be investigated and booked for blackmail and extortion.
He also sought action against Kallahalli, alleging he was pretending to be the woman’s saviour while working at someone’s behest.
“The police should get the truth out of him,” Kumaraswamy said. “No one is bothered about helping the woman get justice. The whole idea was to get Jarkiholi’s resignation.”
Kallahalli, who appeared before police on Friday, seconded Kumaraswamy, saying the scandal was a blackmail conspiracy. “I welcome his statement. If the intention behind the row is blackmail, then such people should be punished,” he added.
Cops quiz activist for 4 hrs
The activist who has linked former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi to a sex-for-job scandal appeared for questioning before the Cubbon Park police on Friday afternoon, a day after he sought to defer the process citing security concerns. Investigators quizzed Dinesh Kallahalli for four hours to obtain more details related to this complaint, which alleges that Jarkiholi exploited a woman after promising her a government job. A purported video of Jarkiholi and the woman surfaced on Tuesday, forcing the BJP member to resign as the water resources minister on moral grounds. Jarkiholi denies wrongdoing, and no FIR has been filed yet.
The woman has not come forward so far, and investigators believe that Kallahalli’s statement may help them identify and trace her. “I stand by my petition and the allegation,” Kallahalli told reporters. “I have shared the details that I had. I will cooperate with the probe.”
On whether he had spoken to the woman, he said: “No, she hasn’t (contacted me). Her family member approached me.” Kallahalli refused to comment on the source of the video recording or whether a third party handed it to him at a hotel in Gandhinagar. “I received the CD in a closed cover and gave it to the police. I cannot reveal anything more. As the investigation is on, I cannot say many things,” he said.
Kallahalli said the investigators would decide if his complaint should be turned into an FIR. Kallahalli had failed to show up for questioning on Thursday and later claimed that he had received threats after filing the complaint and needed security. “As I have been threatened, I need police protection to travel from my village to Bengaluru,” he said.
He surprised officers on Friday by arriving at the police station in a private SUV around 1pm. Inspector B Maruti and assistant commissioner Yatiraj questioned him for more than two hours. After a brief pause, deputy commissioner (central) MN Anuchet grilled him.
An officer, who didn’t want to be named, said that a printout with 40 questions was given to Kallahalli and he was asked to answer them. “He didn’t provide proper answers. His standard responses were: ‘I don’t know and I can’t remember’. We suspect he is trying to mislead us. On the first day, he told us that the CD was given to him at a hotel in Gandhinagar. We reviewed the footage of CCTV cameras at the hotel and nearby buildings, but he is not seen in any video. Now, he is talking about another hotel,” the officer said. Four armed police personnel are deployed at Kallahalli’s home in Kanakapura taluk. He reportedly gave them an excuse to leave the house on Friday.
“He came out around 10am and said that he needed to attend a marriage function. He claimed that the venue was in a nearby village, so we don’t need to accompany him. Later, our seniors informed us that he was at the Cubbon Park police station,” a guard said.