The Karnataka authorities on Wednesday determined to represent a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe allegations made by former state minister Ramesh Jarkiholi that the intercourse CD scandal episode was a conspiracy to defame him.
Jarkiholi had resigned as a minister following the allegation.
“We have received a complaint that there has been an effort to defame the former minister and to bring him into disrepute politically. They have sought a suitable investigation,” Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai mentioned. “After discussion with senior police officers and the CM we have decided to order a comprehensive probe into the people behind the CD – how it was recorded and prepared – through an SIT under additional commissioner of police Soumendu Mukherjee.”
Bommai ordered establishing of the SIT in a letter to the Bengaluru police chief on Wednesday. He talked about that Jarkiholi wrote to him on March 9, stating {that a} criticism of sexual harassment lodged in opposition to him with Cubbon Park police by a social activist on March 2, 2021 was meant to defame him, and that the conspiracy entails a number of individuals.
Meanwhile, the Jarkiholi household, which claims to have carried out a non-public probe with the assistance of personal detectives into the alleged scandal, on Wednesday claimed to have recognized the important thing individuals concerned within the alleged conspiracy. “We have used a private detective to collect all information,” BJP MLA Balachandra Jarkiholi, certainly one of 5 Jarkiholi brothers, mentioned. “We want to ensure there is a solid case. We will name at least two persons in the case so that the conspiracy is revealed when the police arrest them. We wanted to be sure of their roles before we lodge the case.”
Police sources mentioned a proper investigation into the case was delayed since March 2 on account of doubts over who the sufferer actually is – Jarkiholi, or the lady seen within the recordings, because it had been alleged by social activist Dinesh Kallahalli that the connection allegedly concerned coercion.
Kallahalli has since sought to withdraw the harassment allegation he made in opposition to Jarkiholi however is prone to face investigations since he’s a key hyperlink within the former minister’s criticism of defamation conspiracy.
Politics, in the meantime, performed out over the episode, with state minister S T Somashekhar accusing opposition Congress of being behind the scandal, and the state Congress hitting again. “The Congress is behind the CD conspiracy. I have been in that party for 20 years and I know this,” Somashekhar said.
While welcoming the probe into the CD ‘conspiracy’, state Congress president D Ok Shivakumar rebuffed allegations that the Congress is behind the conspiracy. He mentioned, “Let the BJP ministers reveal what all we have done…. Did we ask you to say the things you said? Did we ask you to say the CM is corrupt? Did we ask you to speak against the people of Karnataka? Did we script it? We will also not sit quietly.”
He mentioned, “Let them carry out any investigation that they want. When we (Congress) say the government is corrupt, it is a different matter. But here (in the CDs) a sitting minister of the government is [purportedly] saying that the Chief Minister is corrupt — should there not be an investigation into the matter? I do not know how the Chief Minister is tolerating all this.”
Stating that Jarkiholi and he have been “together once upon a time”, and subsequently “distanced myself from him”, the Congress chief mentioned, “If you are a good person why would people trap you? You should be conscious of yourself…. Let them make allegations against me – this is a game of political chess.”
The state Congress chief additionally mentioned, “If it is a fake CD then why is there a necessity for a case and a probe? People can discern between fake and real things.”
