Synopsis
Union Heavy Industries Minister HD Kumaraswamy appeals to Home Minister Amit Shah for federal agencies’ intervention in the investigation against CM Siddaramaiah over alleged unlawful housing plot allotments to his wife, expressing distrust in the Lokayukta police and alleging conspiracy with Congress leaders.
ANIUnion Heavy Industries and Steel Minister HD Kumaraswamy has urged Home Minister Amit Shah to take steps to take over investigation into the allegations against chief minister Siddaramaiah by presenting the case before courts and competent authorities, pitching for federal agencies to step in while expressing a lack of faith in the ongoing probe by the Lokayukta Police.
The CM’s family is being investigated for the alleged unlawful allotment of 14 housing plots to his wife Parvathi in Mysuru on court orders. Parvathi, however, wrote to Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) Monday night urging the authorities to cancel the allotment forthwith.
In his September 29 letter, which remains under wraps, Kumaraswamy alleged that the Lokayukta police were aligned with the Congress regime. The government, he said in his letter, had hatched a conspiracy to undermine the Governor’s office. The steel minister said he had, at a recent press conference, said that certain police officers were hand in glove with the Congress regime to bring disrepute and implant false evidence to implicate the Governor on the pretext of probing a letter leak.
Kumaraswamy said he had levelled corruption allegations against Additional DGP, Lokayukta M Chandra Sekhar, who, the JDS state president said, had written an abusive letter against him and circulated it to the media. The minister accused him of being “completely in tune with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his defense team.”
“While his abuse does not bother me, what I am really concerned about is that the task of investigating Shri Siddaramaiah in the MUDA scam, where he has cornered 14 sites for his family, is now in the hands of police officers of the Lokayukta. After the abusive letter, can anybody in their right mind expect an impartial investigation into the scam against the chief minister by the Lokayukta? After the abusive letter, can anybody in their right mind expect an impartial investigation into the scam against the chief minister by the Lokayukta? Can there ever be a fair probe by the organisation when the officers of the Lokayukta demonstrate such open and brazen loyalty to the Congress regime, and act as if they are dty bound to protect the corruption it has chosen to patronize,” the letter said.
“It may be imperative for central agencies to take over the investigation,” the union minister said, adding it was a “similar set of senior police officers, totally aligned with the regime, who have clandestinely provoked cases against NDA ministers and BJP functionaries. One such FIR related to the electoral bonds issue has been in the news currently. The nexus of these police officers with Congress leaders deserves to be probed.”
Kumaraswamy also urged Shah to order a departmental enquiry into the IPS officer’s omissions and commissions and check if he had overstayed in Karnataka which is not his parent cadre.
