The Opposition Congress and ruling BJP kept up their attacks on each other in the alleged “sex for favour” scandal on a day when the alleged victim approached the court to record her statement and the SIT questioned former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi.
The Congress posed a series of questions to the BJP and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Twitter, asking why Mr. Jarkiholi was still not arrested and whether the government was keen on protecting an accused in a sexual abuse case. The Congress also said the alleged victim wanting to record her statement before a judicial magistrate and not before the SIT, clearly raised questions on the credibility of the probe.
‘Distressing, terrifying’
Questioning if the State government was working, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah said it was distressing and terrifying that the lady in the alleged CD had, in a letter to the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, spoken about threat to her life.
“The woman claimed to have attempted suicide and now claims that there is a threat to her life,” he said on Twitter.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said: “In a letter to the High Court Chief Justice, the woman expressed distrust about the SIT probe and felt the SIT was destroying evidence by colluding with her opponents. This allegation is very serious and needs immediate attention.”
Meanwhile, the BJP attacked KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar demanding his resignation from the post. The woman’s family members had attacked Mr. Shivakumar in Belagavi on Monday and alleged that he was using their daughter for his politics.
“Mahanayaka has ended as a Khalanayaka”, the BJP said in a tweet. It also taunted Mr. Siddaramaiah asking him to lead a fact-finding committee as that would not only take the scandal to its logical conclusion, but also end up neutralising his competitor Mr. Shivakumar, to which the Congress hit back saying this only amounted to acceptance of incapability to provide justice to the victim.
