Siddaramaiah brushes aside BJP's allegation of using ACB as political tool

Agencies
August 20, 2017

Bengaluru, Aug 20: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today brushed aside the BJP's allegation that his government was using the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) as a political tool against the opposition leaders, including state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa.

He also asserted that the FIRs filed by the ACB against Yeddyurappa were based on merits.

"I am not involved in filing the FIRs against Yeddyurappa. I have never played vendetta politics in my career. If I were to do so, I would have done it long back, isn't it? Hence, the FIRs filed against him are based on facts and evidence," Siddaramaiah said.

He was speaking after paying floral tributes to former chief minister D Devaraj Urs on his 102nd birth anniversary here.

The chief minister also wondered that if, according to the BJP, the FIRs against Yeddyurappa were a result of political vendetta, then how would the saffron party describe the IT raids on state minister D K Shivakumar's properties.

Various properties linked to the energy minister were raided by the Income Tax department during the stay of a number of Gujarat Congress MLAs in a resort here, to avoid alleged poaching attempts by the BJP to defeat Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in the recently-concluded Rajya Sabha polls in that state.

The Congress, however, had the last laugh when Patel won the third Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat.

Siddaramaiah also questioned the need for Yeddyurappa to move the Karnataka High Court, seeking quashing of the ACB proceedings against him, if there was no substance in the FIRs.

Yeddyurappa had yesterday filed a petition in the high court, seeking quashing of the ACB proceedings against him in a land denotification case.

He has been accused of de-notifying 257 acres of land from a preliminary notification of 3,546 acres, meant for the formation of the Dr K Shivaram Karanth Layout, "bypassing" the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) committee's approval, when he was the chief minister between May, 2008 and July, 2011.

Two FIRs had been filed against the former chief minister, based on a complaint from the members of the 'Jana Samanya Vedike', a social organisation.

In his petition, Yeddyurappa alleged that the ACB was being used to target the opposition leaders in the state, "in retaliation" to the IT raids at Shivakumar's properties.

He also alleged that the FIRs against him were a result of "political vendetta and mala fide intentions".

The BJP leader also contended that there was no question of any denotification of land by him since the entire land acquisition was quashed by the high court in 2014.

The 2014 order, however, was dismissed by the high court on April 28, 2017, on a review petition.

Earlier in the day, the Karnataka BJP staged a protest here and demanded Siddaramaiah's resignation for "misusing" the ACB by forcing it to file "false" cases against the opposition leaders.

BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje attacked the Congress government for "weakening" the institution of Lokayukta by creating the ACB, which is controlled by the chief minister.

Former deputy chief minister R Ashok alleged that the FIRs against Yeddyurappa were politically motivated.

Yeddyurappa became the first chief minister in south India to step down while in office, following corruption charges against him. He has recently been named as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate for the 2018 Karnataka Assembly polls.

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News Network
May 10,2024

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A day after National Commission for Women said no woman from Hassan approached the national body to file complaints against Karnataka MP Prajwal Revanna, a new FIR accusing BJP leader Devaraje Gowda of abusing and assaulting a woman has come to light.

The FIR against Gowda was filed by a woman at the Holenarasipura town police station on April 1, after her husband had filed a complaint against the BJP leader on March 30. 

The purported victim's husband has alleged in his plaint that Gowda barged into their home, and threatened the couple while the BJP leader also abused the woman.

Gowda, notably, flagged Prajwal Revanna's case to the saffron party.

Reacting to the allegations levelled against him, the BJP politico posted a video on Facebook where he details how he met the woman and her husband in his office. He also claims that the allegations against him are a plot and false.

It must be noted here that a Special Investigation Team is currently probing the sexual assault cases against Prajwal Revanna who along with his driver Karthik is no longer in the country. A Blue Corner notice is also in place to apprehend the son of H D Revanna who himself is placed under judicial custody till May 14.

In a major twist to the entire case— the woman in the FIR alleged that Devaraje Gowda who apprised BJP of the sex videos involving Prajwal Revanna— has been harassing her for the past 10 months under the guise of helping her sell a property.

The woman also said that she came in contact with Gowda during the process involving the property that she wanted to sell. However, on the pretext of guiding her, the woman alleged that the whistleblower BJP leader physically assaulted and harassed her while Gowda also threatened the couple.

The woman has now sought police protection for herself and family. Further levelling allegations against Gowda in her plaint, she said that the politico had taken her to an isolated place where he assaulted her and threatened to kill the couple.

Former chief minister of Karnataka and Prajwal Revanna's uncle H D Kumaraswamy recently demanded a CBI probe in the Prajwal Revanna matter. However, Home Minister G Parameshwara turned down the demand for the investigation to be handed over to CBI.

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News Network
May 7,2024

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The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) on Monday responded to Karnataka’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) regarding a blue corner notice issued against JDS MP Prajwal Revanna.

In its response, Interpol said that all 196 member countries were alerted to identify and report if Prajwal Revanna is spotted at any port in their jurisdiction.

The Karnataka government issued a Blue Corner Notice on Sunday against Prajwal Revanna, who is facing allegations of sexual abuse by his staff members.

A Blue Corner Notice is issued by the international police cooperation body to collect additional information from its member countries about a person’s identity, location or activities about a crime.

The notice was issued after the 33-year-old Hassan MP reportedly flew to Germany soon after the Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhary wrote to the CM to order a probe into the sexual allegations against Prajwal.

Last week, the anticipatory bail application of Prajwal Revanna was also denied by Justice Santosh Gajanana Bhat’s bench of People’s Representative Court in Bengaluru.

Earlier, his MLA father and son of former Prime Minster HD Deve Gowda, HD Revanna was remanded to Karnataka SIT custody in a kidnapping-related sex scandal case.

His arrest came after the kidnapped victim was rescued from Revanna’s close assistant Rajasekhar’s farmhouse in Kalenahalli, Hunsur Taluk after the SIT conducted the rescue operation to find her, the police said.

The abduction case was filed by the son of a woman who worked at the Revannas’ house for nearly five years. He alleged that his mother was kidnapped from her home on April 29 by Satish Babanna a relative of Revanna.

The Karnataka Sex Scandal case pertains to explicit video clips allegedly involving the 33-year-old Prajwal, grandson of JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, which went viral on social media.

Those videos began to make rounds in Hassan in recent days, following which the state government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the sexual abuse allegations against the MP.

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News Network
May 11,2024

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Karnataka: BJP leader and advocate G Devaraje Gowda was arrested in connection with a sex abuse video allegedly belonging to Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna.

According to police, Devaraje Gowda was arrested at Gulihal tollgate by the Hiriyur police in this district on Friday night for leaking the video in a pen drive.

He was arrested on a tip-off received by the Hassan police, which wanted his presence for the case.

Several explicit videos involving Prajwal started making the rounds ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, which took place on April 26.

The MP, a grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, is absconding and a 'blue corner' notice has been issued against him by Interpol.

Three FIRs, including charges of rape, molestation, intimidation, blackmailing and threatening, have been registered against Prajwal.

Devaraje Gowda is accused of leaking these videos, which he has categorically rejected.

He contested in the 2023 Assembly elections against JD(S) MLA from Holenarasipura H D Revanna.

H D Revanna, father of Prajwal, is at present in jail on charges of kidnapping a woman, a mother of three.

Ahead of polls, Devaraje Gowda had warned BJP’s central leadership against backing Prajwal Revanna and brought his sex scandal to light.

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