Yeddyurappa sees Rs 3,500-cr scam in BBMP

Promises to back up claim with documents tomorrow

Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa has alleged rampant corruption in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), saying no receipts were kept for taxes to the tune of Rs 3,500 crore and that the money was siphoned off.

“I will expose this scam with relevant documents on February 24,” he said at a media conference here on Wednesday. He vowed to take political retirement if his allegation that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had paid Rs 1,000 crore to the Congress high command was disproved. He asked the KPCC working president, Dinesh Gundu Rao, to stop making “personal attacks” on him.

According to Yeddyurappa, a man named Thripuranthaka Murthy (Renukappa) from Bengaluru had written to the superintendent of police, Anti-Corruption Branch, CBI, to register a complaint and conduct a detailed enquiry into the contents of the diary recovered from the house of Congress MLC, K Govindaraju, during an income tax raid. The diary contains details of the bribe paid to some people in New Delhi, he said. Yeddyurappa announced that a BJP parliamentarian would shortly write to the CBI director, seeking details of the raid and the information found in the diary. “As per the rules, the CBI is bound to furnish the information,” he said.

The senior BJP leader reiterated that the chief minister’s wristwatch was worth Rs 85 lakh and that he was involved in the Arkavathy Layout scam, too. “Investigation will be conducted into these scams at the right time,” he said.

Yeddyurappa dared Siddaramaiah to order an enquiry to “expose” the BJP. He also dared JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy to prove that he had “bribed” the BJP leadership when he was the chief minister. Yeddyurappa said Congress leader Kumar Bangarappa was set to join the BJP and that former minister Hartal Halappa was amenable to the idea. A decision on who will contest from which constituency will be taken later, he added.

He further said the decision on re-inducting BJP workers who were expelled for being associated with the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade would be taken by the party’s district units.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, K S Eshwarappa, and others were present at the press conference.