Bengaluru: On Thursday, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai dismissed Congress protests over the death of a contractor tied to state minister KS Eshwarappa. The family of the contractor, Santosh Patil, has demanded justice, alleging that the state minister and his associates drove him to commit suicide. The Congress has demanded the resignation of the Karnataka minister, notwithstanding the fact that a FIR has been filed against him.
The chief minister on Thursday said the party did not have a “moral right” to do that. “The Congress doesn’t have any moral right to protest. Congress is a Gangotri of corruption. The postmortem (in the case) was done yesterday, and now a preliminary inquiry(report) will come. Based on that we’ll proceed,” Bommai was quoted as saying by news agency ANI while giving an update on the case and attacking the Congress in the same breath.
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.”
The KSCA has urged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a retired Supreme Court or high court judge conduct an impartial investigation into Patil’s death.
According to Eshwarappa, the contractor gave “letters to Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union rural development and Panchayati Raj minister Giriraj Singh, alleging I have done work worth ₹4 crore and Eshwarappa’s aides are asking for a bribe. They have written to the state department in Karnataka. But we have written that there is no work order.”
“I suspect he might have committed suicide out of fear because he was given notice [over the allegations[. The matter is in court now and our department has specified it in writing. These are baseless charges against me.”
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