While staging a protest, demanding the removal of KS Eshwarappa from the Karnataka government, Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala, DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah and other party workers were arrested on Thursday, April 14. On their way to Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai’s residence where they planned to stage a massive agitation, they y were first detained and later placed under arrest on the way to Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai’s residence where they planned to stage a massive agitation.
KS Eshwarappa, the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj minister, has been accused of corruption that allegedly led to the suicide of civil contractor Santosh Patil. The matter heated up further after Patil was found dead in a lodge.
Prima facie, it looks like Patil died by suicide.
In his WhatsApp message, Patil directly blamed Eshwarappa for his death. “Eshwarappa is responsible for my death. He has to be punished. I’ve suppressed all my desires and [am] doing this. I request PM, CM and Yediyurappa to take care of my family,” Patil purportedly wrote in the WhatsApp message.
Eshwarappa has said he won’t quit. “It is the Congress which has been saying Eshwarappa should resign. There is no (death) note but they are spreading lies that there’s a death note and then asking for resignation,” the 73-year-leader said.
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Congress’s DK Shivakumar led a delegation of party members to Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot’s office on Wednesday, urging him to fire the minister and “arrest him.”
On Thursday, responding to Bommai’s criticism: DK Shivakumar told ANI: “The chief minister wants to save his corrupt minister. I think he is also part of this whole process. If he wants to save face of BJP and his government, then immediately arrest (KS Eshwarappa) and book a case of corruption.”
The Karnataka State Contractors’ Association (KSCA) stated on Wednesday that if chief minister Basavaraj Bommai does not meet with them and settle the corruption issue, they will expose “four to five ministers and around 25 MLAs.”
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