Karnataka's excise minister and Bagalkot MLA H.Y. Meti resigned from the cabinet on Wednesday over sex scandal allegations.
Meti tendered his resignation to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at his official residence, soon after television channels started playing out a sleaze CD where the 71-year-old minister was seen in a compromising position with a woman. The minister is accused of seeking sexual favour in exchange for a job transfer.
Siddaramaiah, who had maintained that a mere allegation would not warrant any action against the minister said, "I have accepted Meti's resignation and have forwarded the same to the Governor for his approval. I have ordered a CID probe as Meti has claimed he is innocent and it is a case of political conspiracy. I have not seen the CD."
Meti, while speaking to reporters, said that he resigned only to save the Congress government and the chief minister from any embarrassment, although sources said that an upset CM was fuming at the minister.
The expose comes following a week-long murmurs, allegations and counter-allegations and u-turns by the aggrieved woman. Over the last couple of days, the regional TV channels had been playing recorded conversations supposedly between RTI activist Rajashekhar Malali in Bellary and another man believed to be the minister's goon. The audio conversation hinted at the possibility of a sleaze CD involving the minister, even as the goon was heard threatening the activist to handover the CD and strike a compromise.
A little later, a video recording of the aggrieved woman accusing the minister of inappropriate behaviour surfaced in the media. However, the woman alleged that she had been forced to give a statement against the minister by one DAR constable Subhash. The woman also filed a complaint seeking police protection and soon got admitted to a government hospital complaining of ill health. The victim's husband has identified the woman as his wife in the first recording.
Meanwhile Rajashekhar, who landed in Delhi on Wednesday, has alleged that KPCC chief Dr G Parameshwar had refused to meet him. "I have come to Delhi to meet AICC president Smt. Sonia Gandhi as Parameshwar did not meet me. I will expose many more Congress ministers and MLAs. The Congress government is more interested in exploiting women than solving the problems of the people," said Rajashekhar.
The opposition slammed the chief minister for his lax attitude. "The CM should have sacked the minister the moment he got the information. Instead he waited for the CD to surface and tried to protect the minister indulged in immoral acts. The CM should wake up and act as the immoral acts of his ministers have outnumbered the development work done by this government," mocked senior BJP leader S. Suresh Kumar.
Former chief minister and JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy alleged that Siddaramaiah knew about the incident a month back. But he did not take any action. "Home minister's advisor Kempaiah was trying to cover up the incident all this while," he alleged.
BJP leader G. Madhusudhan demanded mass resignation of Siddaramaiah's cabinet colleagues stating they were guilty of moral corruption.
Interestingly, a few senior Congress leaders also lambasted the chief minister for failing to safeguard the government's image. "CM has failed to protect the image of the Congress party and the government. He should have sacked the minister much before the CD surfaced," said former A.H. Vishwanath.
