Let CBI also probe ‘Operation Lotus’ : Siddaramaiah to B S Yediyurappa

Hubballi: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has challenged Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to investigate Operation Lotus, which allegedly brought down the last government in the state, along with the phone tapping charges against former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, which have been handed over to the CBI.

Speaking to reporters while on his first visit to his Assembly constituency of Badami since the recent floods in the taluk, he denied Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's claim that he had taken his advice before handing over the phone tapping charges to the CBI for an investigation.

“Mr Yediyurappa's claim is a lie. He did not take any advice from me on handing over the phone tapping investigation to the CBI. Let him probe Operation Kamala as well. The Bharatiya Janata Party is misusing the Central investigating agency,” he said, adding that the phone tapping case should have been handed over to the state's own Special Investigation Team (SIT) instead.

“We have no objection to an impartial probe into the phone tapping case. But the Bharatiya Janata Party is doing it out of political hatred by ordering the investigation on the orders of its national president, Amit Shah,” he charged.

Asked why he had failed to visit his constituency when it was flooded in the recent rain, the Congress leader said he was being treated for an eye condition at the time and had been advised rest by his doctors.

He later handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to the relatives of Karlakoppa villager, Bhimappa Jalikatti who died in the flood.