Bengaluru: Days after the arrest of Karnataka Minister B Nagendra by the ED in the alleged Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki Corporation Board scam, Karnataka Congress on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of using the central agencies to "topple" the opposition-led state government and said that the opposition will fight it "legally."
Five ministers of Karnataka addressed the press conference on Thursday and attacked the central government over the alleged Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki Corporation Board scam.
"They (the BJP) use central government, then they feel their state wing is collapsing. In the last ten years, you can count how many governments they made fall. In 2014, Arunachal Pradesh (46 MLAs), Goa, Manipur, Karnataka, Gujarat, Assam, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Meghalaya used IT, ED, and CBI. Maharastra 2014 (10) MLAs purchased," Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge alleged.
He further said that the BJP is using agencies and "purchasing, pressuring and utilising agencies" to topple opposition governments to form their own government. Those who don't go to them will be harassed more. Whoever joins the BJP will become clean. 14 opposition parties have filed petitions in the Supreme Court alleging misuse of IT, ED and CBI.
"In Karnataka, the ED and CBI got more interested in Maharishi Valmiki Corporation's alleged scam. Why they were silent on Bhovi Corporation, Thanda Corporation, and Dr Ambedkar Corporation? 47 crore Devraj truck terminal, no one speaking on it. KIADB money went to Salem, but they didn't speak. BJP or the agency didn't speak then. Doesn't all these look like everything they used to target the government and opposition? ED officials using all possible tactics to target people in opposition, we will fight it legally and we will also fight it legally," he added.
Karnataka's Energy Minister, KJ George, said that the government will take action and do the investigation without any interference.
"Doesn't matter what the scam is, we will take action and we'll do an investigation without any interference. Now B Nagendra has resigned and is helping with the investigation. We formed SIT and an investigation is going on, CBI came into the case and ED also came into the case to investigate. When the investigation is going on. It's nothing but political malpractice by the BJP and they use one agency like fascists to spread lies," George said.
Karnataka Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said that the central government have no intention to find culprits, they want only confession by accusing others.
"They are using them (agencies like ED, IT and CBI) to attack the opposition. Even in Karnataka, they used Operation Kamala and toppled the government, now it's not possible, so they're misusing the ED and IT. Now ED is doing the same in the Maharshi Valmiki Corporation alleged scam. They are pressuring the person under investigation to take top people's names in the alleged scam. They have no intention of finding culprits, they only want the confession to topple the government," Gowda said.
Gowda further alleged that from 2014, cases registered by ED increased by 400 per cent and 95 per cent of cases against oppositions.
"Only 5 per cent of cases against BJP and alliance partners filed. BJP is a washing machine, we can give many examples. When UPA was in power ED 53 per cent of cases were in UPA against parties, cases, 47 per cent cases filed against Congress and alliances," he added.
He further alleged that the ED officials are pressuring the person under investigation to take top people's names in the alleged scam.
"They're pressuring by using their powers in the wrong way to topple the government instead of finding the culprit, ED officials also assuring their safety if they take top names," he added.
Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the BJP is using agencies as a tool to hatch conspiracies.
"Its a known fact that how central government misuses the agencies of power to tackle the state government and representatives. Though it's Kejriwal, Hemant Soren, DK Shivakumar and others. Only using agencies as tools to hatch conspiracies. Their agenda is to keep a single Party, now same started in Karnataka by using ED," Rao said.
Karnataka BJP President BY Vijayendra said that the BJP will protest on this issue in Freedom Park on Thursday on the Valmiki scam.
"Day by day, new information is emerging, especially after ED took over the probe. Today, it has come to light that money was utilised for the purchase of liquor in neighbouring states during the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress government is trying to divert the issue. The BJP is doing a protest on this issue in Freedom Park today," Vijayendra said.
The Valmiki scam pertains to the alleged illegal transfer of funds from the Maharshi Valmiki ST Corporation, which is charged with implementing welfare programmes for scheduled tribe members.
The alleged corruption case of Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation came to light after an official of the corporation died by suicide and left a note containing an allegation of multi-crore corruption in the corporation.
—ANI