The State government should have referred the CD scandal allegedly involving Ramesh Jarkiholi, former Minister, to the CBI as the SIT comprising of State police officers, will not be able to function independently, said Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, BJP leader and MLA, in Vijayapura on Friday.
He demanded that the SIT go to the roots of the case and find out who was behind the making of such CDs and sharing them on social media handles. “I know that there are organised gangs in Bengaluru making such CDs to blackmail leaders. They collect crores of rupees by blackmailing leaders at various parties. They should be arrested and tried,” he told mediapersons.
To a question, he said he had reason to believe that some politicians were supporting such gangs. “I am sure that there are at least two politicians who support such ventures. One is in the Congress and the other is in the BJP,” he said.
Mr. Yatnal said he welcomed the statement by Cooperation Minister S.T. Somashekar that Congress leaders were behind the conspiracy to defame Mr. Ramesh. Mr. Somashekar was a Congress man for a long time. He knows how the party functions, Mr. Yatnal said. He accepted that he had referred to some leaders using CDs to blackmail their way into the Cabinet. “But, I did not mean such obscene CDs,” he said.
