JOIN USJD (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy claimed that he was not arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing into the illegal mining cases on August 5, but admitted he was indeed interrogated by the team on that day.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Kumaraswamy tried to lay all the blame on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress government for his plight. He said the government was targeting him as he had exposed many irregularities and scams, including the single-digit lottery racket, corruption in the Lokayukta, and irregularities in the Energy department.
Unable to withstand this, he said, the Siddaramaiah government was making desperate attempts to malign his reputation. He said the chief minister’s office was spreading false rumours about him and trying to ruin the prospects of his party in the upcoming BBMP polls.
Kumaraswamy was reacting to a newspaper report about the SIT arresting him in the illegal mining cases. He said that at no point had he been arrested and that he had obtained an interim anticipatory bail before being quizzed by the officers on the advice of his advocate.
He claimed that the SIT chief and Inspector General of Police C S R Charan Reddy, who had earlier said there was no need for an anticipatory bail, had, however, changed his mind later. Which is why he had furnished the bail bond. He said he had done no wrong and there was no need for him to be arrested.
Kumaraswamy is under the scanner for approving the grant of mining leases to Sree Sai Venkateshwara Minerals in the year 2007 in violation of rules, as per the report furnished by former Lokayukta Justice Santhosh Hegde.