‘Sting’ a bid to finish me off politically: Shivakumar

Minister for Energy D.K. Shivakumar on Thursday said the recent attempt to trap him through a sting operation by a city-based TV news channel was aimed at not only harming his political career but also damaging the credentials of the Congress government.

He said he would take the legal battle to its logical end and was even considering filing a defamation case against the channel.

Mr. Shivakumar told presspersons here that there was a larger political conspiracy to “finish” him off politically and the two journalists of the channel were just pawns in the hands of the perpetrators. The channel tried its best to thwart the chances of his brother D.K. Suresh getting elected to the Lok Sabha in the byelection to the Bangalore Rural constituency last year by running a “malicious” campaign against his family, the Minister alleged.

He wanted to catch the “big fish” behind the sting operation and hence sought the police help on Monday, Mr. Shivakumar said. “I spoke to the Home Minister on learning about the intentions of the TV channel crew and got policemen in

mufti at my residence,” he said.

Rubbishes charge

On the charge of the woman journalist that she was molested at his residence, Mr. Shivakumar said she was like his daughter and no such thing happened. The police were present when the journalists were caught and they were better persons to reveal the truth, he said.

When asked why he called the police instead of warning the journalists, Mr. Shivakumar sought to know when someone was attempting to murder him, should he let the assailant go scot-free? “You know which politicians came out openly in support of the television channel. They are the ones attempting to finish me off politically,” he said.

The Minister claimed that the journalists told the police that there were plans to conduct similar sting operations on at least six other Ministers. “Initially, they tried to trap the Chief Minister himself. When he did not give them an audience, they approached me,” he said.

Mr. Shivakumar said nothing warranted sting operations as there was no complaint of corruption against him or his department. “In the past about 60 days since assuming office, I was busy understanding the working of the department and addressing public grievance,” he said.