A day after Ballari mining baron and former Minister G. Janardhan Reddy called Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy a cobra exacting revenge after 12 years against him, the latter hit back by stating that the thieves could not be forgiven.
Addressing mediapersons at the Zilla Panchayat premises here Thursday, Mr. Kumaraswamy, who initially declined to respond to Mr. Reddy’s remarks, later said that he had never resorted to vengeance against his political rivals.
“I don’t want to stoop to his level and respond to his remarks. I have never resorted to settling scores against my rivals. I didn’t take revenge against him [Mr. Reddy] even when I was the Chief Minister then... If a thief confesses to his crime when he is caught and expresses his readiness to give back the stolen things seeking forgiveness, can he be absolved for all the offences he committed in the past? They [Mr. Reddy and others accused in Ambidant money-laundering case] themselves have submitted an affidavit in the court admitting to having cheated [the investors]. They have also expressed their readiness to return ₹18 crore to the investors within 10 days and they cannot be forgiven for that,” he said.
Asked about the alleged involvement of an IPS officer in the Ambidant money-laundering case and the efforts to derail the investigation, the Chief Minister categorically said that nobody would be spared and the law would take its own course. “We have given free-hand to investigating team. We won’t interfere. Whoever be the offenders, we won’t spare any,” he said.
Loan waiver
Responding to BJP State unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had recently alleged in Kalaburagi that the government had yet to release over₹500 crore to complete the loan waiver announced by Siddaramaiah government, Mr. Kumaraswamy said that the former was spreading misinformation.
“He [Mr. Yeddyurappa] doesn’t know anything about it. Required funds for completing the loan waiver announced by previous Siddaramaiah government had been released. Now, we are working on the new loan waiver announced by my government. We have already released ₹1,300 crore. By next June, we will release another ₹ 9,458 crore to waive farm loans borrowed from cooperative institutions. I have also made a budgetary allocation of ₹6,500 crore this year for waiving farm loans borrowed from nationalised banks. There is no dearth of funds for loan waiver,” he said.
Cooperation Minister Bandeppa Kashempur, and Mines and and Geology Minister Rajashekhar Patil Humnabad were present.
