Bengaluru: The voice samples in audio clips where alleged payments to the BJP high command are being discussed belong to former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, a forensic investigation has revealed.
A report by the Forensic Sciences Lab accessed by CNN-News18 brings fresh trouble for the Karnataka BJP heavyweights months before Assembly elections in the southern state where the saffron party is trying to wrest power from the Congress.
The audio clip in question dates to February 12 when the two leaders were purportedly discussing about a diary recovered from a Congress leader which contained details of alleged payments made to the Congress leadership. In the clip, the two leaders purportedly discussed that they too had given money to the BJP leadership, but never kept a diary. The conversation was picked up by an open mic at a BJP event.
The Congress later filed a complaint, following which Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar denied the allegations and said the clip was doctored. The police had then referred the matter to the Forensic Sciences Lab.
An FIR is yet to be filed, but the issue has already turned up the poll heat in the state, with the BJP saying the complaint is “politically motivated".
“Let them bring 100 such cases. I have the strength to face them. The Congress-led state government is misusing agencies like the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the police to file such cases. There are 52 complaints lodged against the Congress leaders. Why hasn’t the ACB taken up the FIR in even one of them," said Yeddurappa.
“We are not at all denying that we discussed about that. Now the High Court has already a given stay for one year. Our demand is to come out with the full clip. The truth will come out. We have discussed about it there is no doubt about it. We demand them to come out with full clip," the former CM told News18.
Hitting back, Congress spokesperson Dinesh Gundu Rao has asked the Centre to remove Ananth Kumar from the Union Cabinet. “This video is not ours. It is in their (BJP) office. Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar said the voices are not theirs. Now, the FSL has said it’s their voice. It exposes the corrupt practices of Kumar, a central minister, and Yeddyurappa. The police must take the investigation to its logical end. It’s a very serious issue," Rao said, demanding the duo’s resignation.
Rao also questioned why the two leaders initially refused to give their voice samples, and did so only when ordered by a city court. “It showed their guilt.… This goes up to Delhi. It exposes them."
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