A day after Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot accorded sanction for the prosecution of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, IT minister Priyank Kharge on Sunday said the move was political and that the state will fight the case. Kharge also warned that in the next six months, cases may be filed against BJP leaders for alleged corruption in the previous dispensation.
"We will tackle it. We have the best constitutional experts being flown in. We have a lot of people within the state who are helping the government with this, and we will take it up," he said while speaking to reporters
"The only way they can keep this case alive is by using CBI, IT, ED, and the Governor himself. It's political. He (Governor) is acting as a puppet. He has become the puppet. He is no more a constitutional head of the state of Karnataka. Unfortunately, the position has been compromised and he is behaving like an ordinary BJP worker," Kharge said.
The minister also suggested that the state government may start a probe against BJP leaders from the previous dispensation. "There are a lot of discrepancies with people's money in the previous government. We will get to the bottom of it. We are working on it. And let me assure you again that in the next six months, half of the BJP leaders will be running for bail or will be in jail," he said.
The Karnataka Governor on Saturday accorded sanction for the prosecution of Siddaramaiah in connection with the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment 'scam'. Hours later, the Karnataka Cabinet condemned the Governor's decision, termed it as "politically motivated", and vowed to wage a legal fight.
The Chief Minister also made it clear that he will not resign and said the Governor has to quit because he acted like a "puppet" in the hands of the Government of India. The Governor accorded sanction for the commission of the alleged offences as mentioned in the petitions of activists Pradeep Kumar S P, T J Abraham, and Snehamayi Krishna.
The Governor’s sanction is expected to pave the way for investigating agencies to initiate a probe into the allegations against the Chief Minister. In the MUDA 'scam', it is alleged that compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by the MUDA.
The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where MUDA developed a residential layout. Under the controversial scheme, MUDA allotted 50 per cent of developed land to the land losers in lieu of undeveloped land acquired from them for forming residential layouts.
Opposition and some activists have claimed that Parvathi had no legal title over 3.16 acres of land. BJP leaders have claimed that the MUDA 'scam' is of the magnitude of Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.
The Karnataka government had on August 1 "strongly advised" the Governor to withdraw his "show-cause notice" to the Chief Minister and alleged "gross misuse of the Constitutional Office" of the Governor. The Congress government on July 14 constituted a single-member inquiry commission under former High Court Judge Justice P N Desai to probe the MUDA 'scam'.