BJP petitions governor against 'misuse' of ACB against its leaders

The state BJP leaders on Monday complained to Governor Vajubhai Vala against the state government for “misusing” the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to target its leaders and urged him to order a high-level enquiry into the issue.

Besides, the party urged the Governor to direct the government to immediately suspend Director General of Police (ACB) M N Reddi and remove adviser to Home Minister Kempaiah from his post.

The government has been tapping phone conversations of the Opposition party leaders, booking false cases against them and failed to take action against anti-social elements indulging in the killing of RSS activists, the BJP party leaders stated in a six-page memorandum submitted to the Governor.

The BJP directly charged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with conspiring against his political opponents with the help of the ACB chief and Kempaiah. The ACB has filed cases against BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa, based on a complaint filed by a ‘dubious’ RTI activist with an intention to harass him. The activist’s complaint pertains to denotification of lands meant for the formation of Shivaram Karanth Layout by the BDA. But, Yeddyurappa did not pass any order to denotify the land when he was the chief minister, the memorandum stated.

The government did not issue the final notification for acquiring the land. The High Court of Karnataka quashed the preliminary notification for land acquisition, stating that the scheme formulated by the BDA had lapsed. This shows that there was no administrative lapse during Yeddyurappa’s tenure as the chief minister. “Despite these legal & factual aspects and High Court orders, the ACB, under political dictum, has decided to proceed against former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa solely to tarnish his image in public (sic),” the memorandum said.

The BJP leaders said that the ACB officials, including J K Anthony John, Balaraj and Manjunath, tried to force KAS officer Basavarajendra to issue a false statement to implicate Yeddyurappa. The ACB officials made the KAS officer an accused in the case as he refused to heed to their demands. “This is a shocking misuse of the ACB by the chief minister, who is incidentally heading the ACB,” the saffron party charged.

Earlier, the BJP leaders led by Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar took out a protest march from Ambedkar statue in front of the Vidhana Soudha to the Raj Bhavan. Almost all the senior BJP leaders, including K S Eshwarappa, took part in the march in a show of unity.

“The entire state is shocked by the way the government is misusing the ACB to fix Yeddyurappa. We have drawn the Governor’s attention in this regard and urged him to take action against the government,” Ananth Kumar told reporters.