Karnataka Congress Demand Governor End Political Bias

Bengaluru: A delegation of Congress Ministers/ MLAs and leaders on Saturday met Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot at Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru and urged him to end abuse of his office and also to stop acting on political considerations particularly over delay in grant of sanction for prosecution from the Governor’s office against accused leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal Secular (JDS).

The grouse of the Congress party against Governor is that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was served a show cause by Governor on July 26 the same day after he received a complaint from RTI activist T.J. Abraham over alleged plot distribution irregularities to the wife of CM by Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) while a couple requests by Karnataka Lokayukta for prosecution requests has been pending with the office of the Governor for quite some time.

In a memorandum submitted to the Governor, the delegation of Congress leaders led by president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar demanded grant of sanction for prosecution against the Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy, former ministers-Murugesh Nirani, Janardhan Reddy and Sashikala Jolle are sought by Karnataka Lokayukta police under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and also under the provisions of Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

By drawing the attention of the Governor to the case against State president of Janata Dal Secular and Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy, Shivakumar pointed to the Governor's delay in grant of prosecution against H.D. Kumaraswamy in illegal iron ore mining.

He explained the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Karnataka Lokayukta sought sanction against Kumaraswamy under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and also under BNSS, 2023. The SIT provided substantial evidence of commission of offences and submitted proposals to grant sanction for his prosecution in illegal mining lease to Sri Sai Venkateshwara Minerals in 2007 but sanction of prosecution against Kumaraswamy has been inexplicably withheld leading to doubts over the impartiality of Governor’s office.

The Governor was told over the no approval granted by his office to the Lokayukta’s request to prosecute former minister and BJP leader Sashikala Jolle. Shivakumar said, Lokayukta sought sanction from the Governor on December 9, 2021. In addition, there are pending requests against former minister and BJP leader Murugesh Nirani wherein Lokayukta sought his prosecution on February 26, 2024 and a request to prosecute former minister Janaradhan Reddy was made to the Governor on May 13, 2024.

Taking exception to the grant of sanction for prosecution against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in connection with the alleged irregularities in plot distribution to wife of CM by Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in Mysuru city, Shivakumar said “We deeply dismay that your grant of sanction for prosecution against Chief Minister has been without any formal request from an investigation agency but prosecution has been accorded based on petitions by individuals having dubious backgrounds.”

Continuing, he said, the petitions against the Chief Minister lack proper procedural adherence and are seemingly driven by political motivations.

It may be recalled here Governor accorded sanction to prosecute Siddaramaiah on August 16 and the Chief Minister challenged the grant of sanction to prosecute by Governor in High Court of Karnataka. The High Court granted the Chief Minister interim relief.