A high-voltage war of words has begun between mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy soon after Mr. Reddy was released on bail on Wednesday night.
After his release, Mr. Reddy called the Chief Minister ‘a cobra’ who was trying to take revenge on him after 12 years.
Mr. Kumaraswamy hit back on Thursday by stating that “thieves cannot be forgiven.”
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Kumaraswamy, who initially declined to respond to Mr. Reddy’s remarks, later said that he had never resorted to revenge against 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 of all his past offences? They [Mr. Reddy and others accused in the Ambidant money laundering case] submitted an affidavit in 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.
When asked about the alleged involvement of an IPS officer in the Ambidant case and 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 a free hand to the investigating team. We won’t interfere. Whoever might be the offenders, we won’t spare any,” he said.
Responding to BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had recently alleged in Kalaburagi that the government was yet to release over ₹500 crore to complete the loan waiver scheme announced by the Siddaramaiah government, Mr. Kumaraswamy said that the former was spreading misinformation.
“He [Mr. Yeddyurappa] doesn’t know anything about it. The required funds for the loan waiver announced by the previous government had been released. Now, we are working on the 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 loans borrowed from cooperative institutions. I have also made a budgetary allocation of ₹6,500 crore this year for waiving loans borrowed from nationalised banks. There is no dearth of funds,” he said.
Cooperation Minister Bandeppa Kashempur, Mines and Geology Minister Rajashekhar Patil Humnabad were also present.
