Brushing aside the legal notice served to him and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar as an attempt to intimidate them, former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah questioned the purpose of the legal notice served by a BJP MLC when charges of corruption in the COVID-19 management had been made against the State government.
He told reporters in Mysuru on Saturday that the two will face the legal notice by giving an appropriate legal response, but said the charges of corruption had been made against the government. “We will not be scared by the legal notice”, he said.
He has also tweeted that he expected the legal notice to be served by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Ministers or the Chief Secretary after the Congress ‘exposed’ the corruption by the government in the purchase of equipment to fight COVID-19.
Further, he tweeted that the government was being ‘foolish’ if it was under the impression that it can browbeat the Congress leaders before adding that the party would take its struggle against corruption to the people.
Reacting to the BJP leaders raking up the Hublot watch case, the former Chief Minister questioned whether he should also recall the past cases involving Mr. Yediyurappa.
He said the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had conducted a probe into the watch case and had given him a clean chit. The watch had been handed over to the government and the person who presented the watch to him has also submitted an affidavit in the regard.
“Was the watch purchased from public money? It had been presented by somebody and was not bought by looted money. An inquiry has already been conducted in the matter and a clean chit has been given”, Mr. Siddaramaiah said before clarifying that the BJP had raked up the watch issue only to ‘mislead’ the people.
Referring to BJP leaders’ comments about him sharing the dais with Mr. Shivakumar, who had gone to jail, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the Congress leader were “politically motivated”. Asking the BJP leaders if the courts had found Mr. Shivakumar guilty, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the courts had given the KPCC president bail.
