Karnataka government has said the Joint Director, Agriculture has found that no corruption complaint was made by any official against the state's agriculture minister after state’s Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot sent a letter to the Chief Secretary.
Gehlot had sent letter over an anonymous corruption complaint allegedly by officials against Agriculture Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said “the police would investigate the issue, and that Joint Director, Agriculture, Ashok Kumar had filed a complaint about the fake letter the Governor had mentioned,” The Indian Express reported.
“Earlier, Cheluvarayaswamy called the complaint cited by the Governor as fake,” the report said.
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Siddaramaiah had slammed the BJP and JD(S) and accused both the parties of being behind the allegations.
“Are BJP leaders who are maligning the government by using the letter the creators of the letter, or is it your ‘brother’?” he said.
The report said: “Brother was a reference to JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, who has been cosying up to the BJP since his party’s poor performance in the Assembly polls held earlier this year.”
Kumaraswamy hit back, asking Siddaramaiah why he was “shamelessly” defending the acts of his minister, the report said.
“Has the Governor’s Secretariat sought action based on a fake letter? Will the Governor respond to a fake letter? This is unbecoming,” he said, as per the report.
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The report said Cheluvarayaswamy called the allegations part of conspiracies hatched against him, and said they would fail.
“You all know who is behind this ploy and I don’t have to name the person… Since they can’t take me head on politically, such cheap politics is being played,” he said.
In his letter to Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma, which became public Monday, Governor Gehlot urged Sharma to “take action as per the law”, saying officials had accused the minister of demanding bribes from assistant directors of the department, the report said.
The allegations come on the heels of Kumaraswamy alleging corruption running into over Rs 1,000 crore in “transfer-posting business” in Karnataka, it mentioned.
