BENGALURU: Continuing from where the political slugfest between BJP and Congress was left off on Wednesday, the Bitcoin scam took a personal turn with the BJP hinting at opposition leader Siddaramaiah’s late son Rakesh Siddaramaiah having close links with the prime accused hacker Srikrishna’s close associates in the hacking and drug cases.
In a series of tweets, the BJP published a picture of Rakesh Siddaramaiah with Sunish Hegde and Hemanth Muddappa, while targeting Siddaramaiah over trying to cover-up when Sriki and his associates were arrested in 2016.
The party’s official handle also asked Siddaramaiah as to why he did a U-turn on Wednesday, when asked as to whether he had any proof of the Bitcoin scam.
"During your tenure, it appears that you were very keen on closing the cases. Irrefutable truth in this picture suggests that your direct involvement may be in question. Fearing that the truth shall come out, did you take a U-turn?" questioned BJP on submitting proof of the scam.
Reacting to the tweets by the BJP, a stoic Siddaramaiah poured his disgust by stating: "The BJP has shown it has no shame or honour by accusing a dead man of wrongdoing. They have shown their true colours in these accusations. Is there any point in accusing Rakesh to come and give a statement? He is dead. The BJP is shameless."
He later went on to tweet by stating: "The Karnataka BJP is trying to hide their corruption by bringing the name of deceased son. I urge the chief minister to order a judicial enquiry by the Supreme Court to investigate the Bitcoin scam including our term."
He even tweeted a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being seen with another fugitive Nirav Modi at the 2018 world economic forum.
"The BJP has alleged that my son Rakesh was seen with Sri Krishna’s friend Hemant Muddappa. Then how can we interpret the photo of PM Modi with Nirav Modi during the 2018 world economic forum?" questioned the opposition leader.
He added that the BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel may know the "important" leader who supposedly recieved Bitcoin as quid pro quo for mediating the release of Muddappa when he was arrested with Sri Krishna, the hacker.
Earlier in the day, former chief minister B S Yediyurappa said the Bitcoin scam was being probed with no intentions to protect anyone.
"Our prime minister Narendra Modi will ensure that none of the accused in the scam will be spared, rest assured. If anyone has any evidence in the matter then let them submit it to the investigating agency for a probe," he said.
