The BJP government should perhaps open a CBI and ED office exclusively to keep raiding KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar's house every day. They have already raided his premises several times but found nothing. This is a ploy to divert attention from the failures of the Bommai government which is steeped in corruption, mocked AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala in Belagavi on Tuesday.
Surjewala slammed the BJP saying it was misusing the central agencies for "targeting" KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar in an election year to cover up its follies. "The BJP is trying to divert attention from the 40 per cent commission charges and PSI recruitment scam by targeting Shivakumar. Let me tell you the Congress party and the party workers from Delhi to Karnataka stand with Shivakumar," said Surjewala, who took part in the Congress Legislature Party meeting held in Belagavi in view of the ongoing winter session of the Karnataka Legislature.
On Monday, the KPCC chief alleged that CBI sleuths visited the educational institutions run by him and the "harassment" coincided with the upcoming Assembly polls. He was referring to the CBI officials visiting a college and a school run by his family under the National Education Foundation in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru.
"My personal and professional life is transparent. There are no corruption charges against me. Yet they have filed a disproportionate assets case. The FIR was filed three years ago and no investigation has been carried out. I moved the court questioning the government's decision to hand over the case to CBI. The advocate-general too has opined the case can be probed by local agencies as it is not a special case. But they seem to have decided to harass me. They summoned me during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. I am hurt because they are harassing people who are associated with me. They have sent me to a place (to jail) once and are planning to send me there again. I am prepared to face it," said Shivakumar.
Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council B.K. Hariprasad dubbed the CBI as the "frontal organization" of the BJP, while Revenue minister R Ashok reasoned that CBI was just doing its work and the central agencies like the IT department had raided the houses of BJP leaders GM Siddeshwar and Janardhana Reddy in the past.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the CBI was an independent constitutional body and they would take action in accordance with the law. "Shivakumar is also aware of it," said Bommai.
