Pages from diaries that are part of investigation by the Income Tax Department coming into public domain has eroded people’s faith in the investigation agencies, said Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Dinesh Gundu Rao on Saturday, holding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley accountable for it.
Mr. Rao told presspersons that all such “diaries”, including the controversial Sahara-Birla diaries, need to be investigated impartially to reveal the truth.
Mr. Rao accused the BJP-led NDA government of making use of investigative agencies to destabilise the Congress government in Karnataka.
In a counter to the BJP’s allegation that pages of a diary seized during I-T raid on Congress MLC K. Govindaraj established money sent from the State Congress to the party’s central leadership, Mr. Rao displayed excerpts of what are claimed to be diary entries of Lahar Singh Siroya, BJP MLC and former treasurer of the party.
The page has been doing the rounds on social media since Friday.
List of acronyms
The page has a list of acronyms such as M. Nirani, Renu, DVS, CMO, BSY, Namo, AK, and M.D. Rao. The diary is claimed to belong to Mr. Singh, which was allegedly seized from his residence during an I-T raid on March 9, 2013.
Mr. Rao also released a letter written by Mr. Singh to BJP veteran leader L.K. Advani, mentioning alleged payment to the party’s central leadership during the BJP’s rule in the State.
Seeking an explanation from the Centre on the leakage of documents seized by the I-T Department, Mr. Rao urged BJP leaders to demand resignation of Mr. Modi and Mr. Jaitley, before demanding resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Even my signature is forged: Lahar Singh
When The Hindu sought a response from BJP MLC Lahar Singh Siroya, he said, “Never in my life have I ever maintained any diary.”
He said the documents were clearly forged since the signature even misspelt his name. “I spell my name as Lahar Singh and not as Lehar Singh,” he said.
The page has been on social media since Friday and the BJP’s social media cell has lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime police on this. BJP sources said there were several other loopholes in the alleged entries made in the diary, with no match between the political situation then and the entries made.
