Karnataka: CM led a protest against misuse of ED by central government
BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday led a symbolic protests against misuse of Enforcement Directorate (ED) by Bharatiya Janata Party led Central Government and termed the investigation by ED officials into the alleged fraudulent transactions in the bank accounts of Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation has been conducted out of ‘political vengeance’ against the ruling Congress government in Karnataka.
The Chief Minister was joined by Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Ministers-Eshwar Khandre, Dr H.C. Mahadevappa, K.J. George, MLAs and party leaders staged a protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue in Vidhana Soudha.
Later, the Chief Minister asserted “We are ready to wage a legal battle against ED” and said a decision will be taken at the party meeting to chalk out a future course of action against ED outside the Assembly. The investigation by sleuths of Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the fraudulent transactions in the bank accounts of Valmiki Corporation is almost complete, he said and expressed surprise “Never before in his political career came across investigations by 3 different teams (SIT, CBI and ED) in a fraud case.”
Over the SIT investigation, Chief Minister said SIT sleuths expeditiously completed the investigation and recovered Rs 85.25 crore from the accused persons out of the alleged fraud of Rs 89.63 crore but said he was unaware of the investigations by sleuths of CBI and ED into the alleged fraud.
Siddaramaiah alleged the role of Bharatiya Janata Party led Central Government of trying to destabilize the Congress ruled State Government and tarnish the image of the State Government by projecting as anti-Scheduled Castes and anti-Scheduled Tribes.
He accused the Central Government of adopting back door politics to destabilize the State Government and the Central Government intends to throw the Congress party out of power in Karnataka.
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar shared similar views to that of Chief Minister and accused the Central Government of trying to ‘tarnish’ the image of Chief Minister while Minister for Social Welfare Dr H.C. Mahadevappa alleged BJP government at the Centre is trying to arrest Siddaramaiah out of ‘political vengeance’ in a similar way to that of arrests of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemanth Soren.
