'Centre abusing agencies to decimate opposition'

State Congress leaders jumped into the defence of former minister D K Shivakumar, accusing the Central government of abusing investigating agencies to decimate its political opponents, here on Friday.

KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the Central government was desperately trying to arrest Shivakumar and was hounding him for the past two years. "Both the State and Central BJP leaders are displaying their cowardice. Since, they cannot face him politically, they are misusing investigative agencies to corner him," he said.

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Prima facie it is clear who and what the objective behind the summons is, he said and accused investigating agencies of selectively leaking 'half-truths 'to defame opposition leaders.

"The agenda of the BJP is to finish off opposition leaders. These are acts of an authoritarian government which a great danger to our democracy," he charged.

Congress leader Siddaramaiah took to Twitter and accused the BJP of exacting revenge as he had sheltered Gujrat Congress MLAs in 2017.

"The Central government is exacting revenge against D K Shivakumar by misusing IT and ED for sheltering Gujarat Congress MLAs. If he had committed a mistake they would have prosecuted him for wrongdoing. But, misusing investigative agencies for revenge is condemnable," he tweeted.