NEW DELHI/BANGALORE: A day after the Karnataka high court remarked that the state seemed to have become number one in corruption, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Wednesday faced new charges of "fraudulently" acquiring a cement company in the state and fresh demands for his resignation.Former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy levelled fresh allegations of graft against the chief minister."Big fishes of BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) are involved and their names will come out if the central government probes the affairs of a non-banking financial company in Kolkata through which Yeddyurappa's family managed the illegal, fraudulent and deceptive acquisition of Ratna Cements in Belgaum district," Kumaraswamy told reporters in New Delhi.Kumaraswamy's allegations came as his Janata Dal-Secular party and the Congress in Bangalore called for Yeddyurappa's immediate resignation after state Chief Justice J.S. Khehar's reported observation Tuesday that Karnataka seems to have become the number one corrupt state.Justice Khehar reportedly made the statement while hearing a case pertaining to grant of licence for granite quarrying.Kumaraswamy and Congress state president G. Parameshwara demanded the immediate response of the chief minister and the ruling BJP to the Chief Justice's comments. Parameshwara sought Yeddyurappa's resignation.Yeddyurappa declined to react and only said: "I will not comment. I have great respect for the judiciary."However, state BJP chief K.S. Eshwarappa termed Justice Khehar's comments as "personal opinion".Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Kumaraswamy said Yeddyurappa's family had acquired the NBFC, Indravir Kutir, in Kolkata in 2009 to facilitate their "fraudulent acquisition of Ratna Cements in Belgaum", about 500 km from Bangalore.He said the cement firm had incurred heavy losses and also not paid around Rs.7 crore to Karnataka State Industrial Investment & Development Corporation. "Yeddyurappa who was deputy chief minister in 2006 handling finance portfolio and the then industries minister Katta Subramanya Naidu entered into a conspiracy to defraud KSIIDC and waived the dues from the cement firm."This was done with an intention to acquire the company later. The acquisition was completed in 2009, a year after Yeddyurqappa became chief minister," Kumaraswamy said.He also claimed that Yeddyurappa had favoured his sons by "illegally allotting 1,400 acres for lime stone quarrying for the cement plant".Kumaraswamy declined to name the "big fishes of BJP high command" involved and said "if the central finance department does not initiate a probe, we will file a public interest petition in a court to bring out the truth".In Bangalore, Yeddyurappa dismissed Kumaraswamy's charges as "totally baseless"."All details will be made public in a day or two," he said.Yeddyurappa said a defamation case against Kumaraswamy would also be filed.The allegations of graft come two days ahead of BJP's national campaign against corruption.
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