From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Aug 21: BJP leaders of the State led by party president and former Chief Ministers B S Yeddyurappa, Jagadish Shettar and Union Minister Ananth Kumar were part of a delegation that met Karnataka Governor Vajuvhai Vala on Monday protesting against the 'misuse' of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The delegation, which included opposition leader in the State Legislative Council and former Deputy Chief Ministers K S Eshwarappa and R Ashok, also accused the ruling Congress party of tapping the telephones of political opponents.
The BJP delegation submitted a memorandum the governor and sought his intervention against the backdrop of the ACB registering two fresh complaints of land de-notification against former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.
They even alleged that the telephones of opposition leaders are being tapped and asked the Governor to check the misuse.
The cases refer to Yeddyurappa’s denotifications of 257 acres of land in the proposed Shivarama Karanth Layout in Bengaluru when he was chief minister 7 years ago.
The BJP leaders alleged that the ACB is being misused by Siddaramaiah to settle political scores and crush political opponents.
They also see the move, coming aftermath of the I-T raids on Karnataka energy minister DK Shivakumar's premises, as part of Siddaramaiah's vendetta against Yeddyurappa, who is leading an agitation pressing for Shivakumar's resignation.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked Yeddyurappa to appear before the ACB and prove his innocence instead of wasting his energies by staging protests. "Why is he delaying to clarify his position if he is really innocent?," he asked and said the Congress government does not believe in vendetta politics as is being done by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre to browbeat the opposition.
Karnataka’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra said the ACB was acting independently and would go by documentary evidence. "Statements by anybody would not matter," he said when asked about the former officer Basarajappa alleging that he was forced to give evidence to implicate Yeddyurappa.
The Chief Minister, incidentally, wondered why the officer remained silent for seven years and suddenly realised that he was coerced to give evidence. What happened seven years ago and the official documents are the key and not any kind of unfounded statements, he added.