Bengaluru: Upping the ante against the Siddaramaiah government, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday petitioned Governor Vajubhai Vala against it, claiming it was misusing the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to foist false cases against its state chief, B S Yeddurappa and had ordered political advisor to the Home Minister, Kempaiah and ACB chief, M.N. Reddi to tap the phones of its political opponents.
A delegation led by Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Ananth Kumar alleged in a six-page memorandum handed to the Governor, that the government had also failed to control the killing of RSS workers in the state and was using pseudo Right To Information (RTI) activists to engineer false complaints against BJP leaders.
Emphasising that the tapping of phones of political opponents was not only a violation of liberty but also of the Constitution, the BJP urged the Governor to direct the state government to remove Mr Kempaiah from his post and suspend Mr. Reddi as well as Deputy Superintendent of Police, Balaraj Anthony Raj and CPI Manjunath.
Mr Ananth Kumar said that 16 “false cases” registered against Mr Yeddyurappa on the basis of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had been challenged before the High Court, and it was “shocking” that the Chief Minister, who incidentally headed the ACB, was misusing it to implicate him.
Urging the Governor to intervene in the matter, and order a high level inquiry into the threats allegedly received by a senior KAS officer, who refused to give a statement against Mr. Yeddyurappa, the memorandum said, “With the government misusing the state machinery and failing to protect the lives of people , we humbly request your Excellency to consider the same and save the state and the people from the misrule of the present Congress government.”
Quoting media reports, it also maintained that the Chief Minister was using the ACB to settle scores with the political opponents of the Congress and had ordered its officials a few days ago to start registering cases against them.
The BJP delegation included leader of the opposition in the Assembly, Jagadish Shettar, former Deputy Chief Ministers, R. Ashok and K.S.Eshwarappa, BJP MPs, Prahlad Joshi, Shobha Karandlaje , and Shivakumar Udasi, senior leaders, Govinda Karjol, C.T.Ravi, Aravinda Limbavali, Suresh Kumar and Laxman Savadi, besides party MLAs and MLCs.
