BS Yeddyurappa claimed state Congress leaders were sending money to their top leadership.
Highlights
- The diary was allegedly seized by Income Tax Department last year
- K Govindaraju, whose house it was allegedly found in, said it was planted
- Yeddyurappa said diary entries proved money was paid to Congress leaders
The Congress government in Karnataka has been caught in a storm of corruption allegations from the BJP over the contents of a diary allegedly seized by the Income Tax department in March 2016 from the house of a Congress lawmaker. State BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa has claimed that the diary contained "explosive" information about money paid to top Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Digvijaya Singh and party treasurer Motilal Vohra. The pages of the diary, he said, conveyed such information through abbreviated initials.
Mr Yeddyurappa -- the chief of BJP's state unit who had to step down from the Chief Minister's post due to corruption allegations -- has alleged that the state Congress leaders were sending money to the party. Some of that money, he said, came from kickbacks for sanctioning a controversial steel flyover project, which has been halted by the green court.
The hand-written entries, "has initials like 'SG', which stood for Sonia Gandhi, 'RG' Rahul Gandhi, 'MV' Motilal Vohra and 'DVGS' for Digvijaya Singh,": news agency IANS quoted him as saying.
The Karnataka Congress MLC at the centre of the diary controversy, K Govindraju, told NDTV the diary was not his and was not in his handwriting. He said, "The search was done in March 2016. The first day itself I gave statement that the seized document was not mine. This is a mysterious diary. During the IT investigation I have vehemently opposed that this does not belong to me. (sic) I was not at my residence when the search was done. They showed me the diary, I said, 'It is not mine. It is not my handwriting.' I denied everything that day. It could be planted or somebody has played mischief."
The BJP charges pushed the Congress to hold a Satyameva Jayate rally in state capital Bengaluru on Thursday. The party said the BJP had been misusing Central government investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI and the Income Tax department. "Otherwise, he (Mr Yeddyurappa) can't get any information regarding the IT raids and the so-called diary he is talking about," said Home minister Dr G Parameshwara who was present at the rally.
The party's state unit working president Dinesh Gundu Rao told NDTV that non-BJP states were being targetted by the Centre's investigative agencies due to pressure from the ruling BJP at the Centre.
The Congress had tried to turn the focus back on the BJP after a local television channel aired a purported conversation between Mr Yeddyurappa and central BJP leader on how all chief ministers supply funds to their central party leadership.
While the BJP was in power in the state between 2008 and 2013, leaders from the party faced many charges of corruption. Mr Yedduryappa had to step down from the Chief Minister's post in connection with alleged irregular land deals.