The Congress on Sunday demanded the removal of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa after a former chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), M. Sudheendra Rao, claimed that he had paid a bribe of ₹9.5 crore of the ₹16 crore demanded by a relative of Mr. Yediyurappa.
The party also demanded a judicial probe by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka and urged Central agencies, including the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the Income Tax (IT) Department, to carry out “an exhaustive investigation and uncover the truth”.
Addressing a press conference at AICC headquarters, jointly with spokesperson Gourav Vallabh, senior Karnataka Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao said that Dr. Rao, on a local TV channel, also gave details of how Mr. Yediyurappa’s family members, including son B.Y. Vijayendra, grandson Shashidhar Maradi, and a close cousin Sanjayshree, put pressure on him to give environmental clearances to companies that violated norms.
“They are using their position to loot the State and this money is being re-channelised to fund their political ambitions, to fund the BJP, and also probably to fund the national leadership. Otherwise, why would the national leadership of the BJP keep quiet despite these blatant acts of corruption,”asked Mr. Dinesh Gundu Rao.
Though the former KSPCB chairman was appointed in December 2019, a post with a three-year tenure, he was forced to resign by May, 2020, the Congress leaders alleged.
The Congress leaders also played video excerpts of the claims by Dr. Rao to the channel, in which he claimed to have sold off his properties as well as gold and silver jewellery, belonging to his wife and daughters, to raise the amount for the alleged bribe.
“As per Dr. Rao, when things come to a flashpoint, the Chief Minister’s family begins the operation for his removal by putting psychological pressure and even issuing oral threats. When he refuses to oblige, they manage to obtain his signature on a green sheet of paper ostensibly for submitting an affidavit before the court in an official matter. Later when he is on a pilgrimage trip to Mantralayam in Andhra Pradesh along with his family, some ‘miscreants’ type out the resignation letter on the signed green sheet of paper obtained from Dr. Rao and submit it to Mr. Yediyurappa’s office who in turn accepts the ‘resignation’ with immediate effect,” the Congress leaders alleged in a statement.
Asking the CBI, the ED and the IT Department to act, Mr. Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “They should not be just lap dogs of the BJP, they should act independently. These things have been noticed by the BJP’s national leadership but they are not acting upon it. They are not doing anything, the biggest question is why?”