Close on the heels of an ongoing investigation into the alleged nexus between the drug mafia and the Kannada cinema industry, the former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday alleged that money from “drug mafia, betting, and dance bars” was used to topple the coalition government that he led as CM.
He made a similar charge in 2018, when as Chief Minister he asked police officials to probe “kingpins” collecting money from “these mafias” to poach MLAs to topple his government. However, nothing came out of that probe.
The allegation drew a sharp rebuttal from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar, one of the Congress MLAs who defected to BJP bringing down the coalition government, hit back at Mr. Kumaraswamy asking him to watch his words. “The BJP is a strong ideological party and would never resort to such foul means. The very allegation shows how he [H.D. Kumaraswamy] thinks,” he said.
Talking to presspersons on the recent drug bust by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which has opened a can of worms as many Kannada film personalities were allegedly the clientele, Mr. Kumaraswamy said that even he had worked as a Kannada film producer and had not come across the use of drugs in the industry.
“But I would request the police to take stringent action against those involved, irrespective of their influence,” he said. It was in this context he made the allegation that money collected from “drug, betting and dance bar mafias” was used to poach MLAs, hinting that some elements of the BJP, which toppled his government, were in collusion with such “mafias”.
“When I asked the city police to act, some of those kingpins ran away to Sri Lanka to escape action,” he added.
