Siddaramaiah dismisses reports on confession by aide

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today refuted as "lies" the media reports that Congress MLC K Govindaraju has conceded in his deposition before the Income Tax authorities that entries in his diary recovered by officials had links to senior party leaders.

" ... do you have documents (to show) that he has conceded," Siddaramaiah countered reporters here, when questioned about the alleged confession of Govindaraju, his political aide.

When told some national media had documents, he said, "Do they have (it)? Have they shown it? It is all lies."

The reported diary entries by Govindaraju, Siddaramaiah's Parliamentary Secretary, indicating alleged payments to Congress central leaders by state ministers had come to light in February resulting in a political slug fest.

Excerpts from the diary allegedly belonging to Govindaraju, made public by the media, showed a few acronyms that find similarities with names of the top brass of Congress and the amount in crores of rupees against them which was purportedly paid or received.

Govindaraju on his part reiterated that he has nothing to do with the diary.

In a statement here, he said the media reports claiming that that he had conceded before the income tax department that initials in the diary are of Congress leaders were "baseless". "I have already clarified that the diary does not belong to me and the handwriting in it is not mine. So there is no question of me giving a statement that the initials in it are of Congress leaders. I have myself asked that the writing be sent to forensic science laboratory to ascertain the truth," he said.

Stating that his lawyers had sent the writing to forensic science laboratory and had obtained its report, Govindaraju said it proved that the handwriting was not his. "I have clarified several times that the handwriting is not mine," he added.

The Income Tax Department had in March last year conducted searches at the residence of Govindaraju and seized several documents including the alleged diary.