Chief Minister’s son B.Y. Vijayendra’s allegation against a long-term associate of Social Welfare Minister B. Sriramulu, reportedly for duping several people by misusing his name, acquired political overtones on Friday.
Even as Mr. Sriramulu is reportedly upset over the issue, it provided fresh ammunition to the Opposition that has launched a fresh attack on the alleged corruption in the government.
Meanwhile, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Bengaluru city police who picked up Rajanna, the Minister’s associate for questioning on Thursday evening, have questioned and released him. Senior CCB officials said they collected voice samples of the suspect, which has been sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Madiwala, to be matched with that of the voice in the two audio clips submitted by the complainant Mr. Vijayendra. The two audio clips are purportedly of Rajanna speaking to unidentified individuals promising to swing contracts and government postings, asking for money – ₹75 lakh and ₹1 crore – to be paid to Mr. Vijayendra.
Later in the day, Rajanna took to Facebook and claimed he was associated with Mr. Sriramulu for the past 20 years, and he was not involved in any corruption and the voice in the audio clip was not his. “If only Mr. Vijayendra had called me before lodging the complaint, all confusion would have been cleared,” he wrote.
Mr. Sriramulu is reportedly upset that he was not kept in loop on the matter and the complaint by Mr. Vijayendra had not only embarrassed him, but also the government. He reportedly spoke to the Chief Minister in this regard. Detractors of the Chief Minister are reportedly upset over what they call “attempt to deflect allegations of corruption by embarrassing other leaders”.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sriramulu told reporters: “Let investigations be completed to know whether Rajanna is guilty or not. There is an FIR registered against him.” He said that he would have brought an end to the alleged extortion if Mr. Vijayendra had spoken to him. The Minister clarified that Rajanna did not hold any official position in his office.
Sources in the Chief Minister’s camp saw the complaint as a strategy to expose alleged corruption by others in the government, while Mr. Vijayendra is often “unfairly targeted”.
Mr. Vijayendra tweeted: “...The menace of people misusing and tarnishing my name is rampant. This has also become ammunition to my detractors to carry out a misinformation campaign...” This comes amidst an unrelenting campaign seeking leadership change and complaints of “interference and corruption” by Mr. Vijayendra.
The Congress attacked the BJP and the State government for “rampant corruption” and demanded a probe against Mr. Sriramulu and Mr. Vijayendra, alleging the complaint only seemed like an outcome of dispute over sharing the spoils.
Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah tweeted with the hashtag “#25PercentGovt” and condemned minister Sriramulu backing his personal assistant. “This clearly shows that he is the brain behind the negotiations. There should be investigation about the role of Sriramulu also. There should be an investigation about the money trail also. Who asked him to collect and to whom did he give the money? There should be an investigation on B. Y. Vijayendra also as there are discussions about his involvement as well”, he tweeted.
