The Congress on Friday urged the Election Commission to disqualify Bharatiya Janata Party leader B Sriramulu a day after it released two videos that allegedly show him attempting to bribe a relative of former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan for a favourable verdict in an illegal mining case. Sriramulu is contesting Saturday’s Karnataka Assembly elections against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Badami.
The illegal mining case reportedly referred to in the videos involves the Obulapuram Mining Company. Sriramulu is believed to be a friend of Obulapuram Mining Company owner Janardhana Reddy. The videos are reportedly part of a sting operation carried out in 2010. The Election Commission has directed television news channels not to air the videos, which show Sriramulu, suspected middlemen and the son-in-law of the former chief justice discussing the purported payment of a Rs 100-crore bribe by Reddy, The Indian Express reported. On May 10, 2010, the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of Janardhana Reddy, a day before Balakrishnan retired.
A Congress delegation led by senior party leaders Kapil Sibal and Randeep Surjewala met Election Commission officials. “A First Information Report should be registered against all those who are participating in it [the video],” ANI quoted Sibal as saying after the meeting. “Ban on showing that video in Karnataka must be lifted.”
The Congress, in its memorandum to the poll panel, also urged it to charge Sriramulu for violating the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Janardhan Reddy was a minister in the BS Yeddyurappa-led government after the BJP won the Assembly elections in Karnataka in 2008. Three years later, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested him on charges of illegal mining. He was arrested again in 2015 but granted bail. Janaradhana Reddy’s brother Somasekhar Reddy is the BJP candidate from Ballari City while the party has fielded his other brother Karunakara Reddy from Harapanahalli.
“Sriramulu is now the BJP’s star campaigner,” Karnataka Congress Working President Dinesh Gundu Rao said, according to ANI. “We demand that the prime minister break his silence and answer the people of Karnataka on why the Bellary gang has been brought back to loot Karnataka. We demand an immediate high-level inquiry into this bribery scandal.”
The BJP dubbed the clip fake news, and asked people not to blindly believe them. “Instead, rather verify it. There is no need to believe what the Congress is saying,” BJP President Amit Shah said at a press conference.
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