Karnataka Congress Protests Against ED: CM Siddaramaiah and Ministers Speak Out
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 23: The Karnataka Congress, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and State Home Minister G Parameshwara, held a protest at the Gandhi statue outside Vidhan Soudha. They were protesting against the alleged arbitrary actions of ED officials in the Valmiki Corporation case.
The Congress leaders claim that ED officials are trying to implicate the Chief Minister and the Karnataka government unnecessarily. They allege that the ED forced a government officer to give a statement against the Chief Minister during interrogation.
Statements from Leaders
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said, “Today all legislators, including ministers, are protesting against the ED for forcing the Assistant Director of the Department of Social Welfare to spell out the name of the CM Siddaramaiah. The minister himself had resigned to cooperate in a free and fair investigation. The SIT has already recovered 50 per cent of the amount and arrested a lot of people. Now the ED has become involved and they are forcing the Assistant Director of the Department of Social Welfare to say that the CM is involved. I have been targeted. CBI is harassing people like me. The FIR has been registered. The law will take its course. We do not want to meddle with the investigation. We will discuss it in the assembly also.”
Meanwhile, Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge said, “BJP is doing a surgical strike on a democratically elected government in Karnataka. ED officials are pressurising state government officials to name CM and Deputy CM in the scandals they are not involved in. We are not questioning the functioning or investigation of authority here but you can’t pressurise government officials to name them (CM & DCM). It’s a scripted investigation that is going on.”
Background of the Case
The alleged corruption case of Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation came to light after an official of the Corporation, Chandrasekaran, died by suicide. He left a note containing allegations of multi-crore corruption in the corporation. Chandrasekaran was a superintendent with the MVDC and was posted at its Bengaluru office.
Doubts Revealed
Karnataka Congress -: Karnataka Congress is a political party in the Indian state of Karnataka. They are part of the larger Indian National Congress party.
ED -: ED stands for Enforcement Directorate. It is a government agency in India that investigates financial crimes like money laundering.
CM Siddaramaiah -: CM Siddaramaiah is the Chief Minister of Karnataka. The Chief Minister is the head of the state government.
State Home Minister G Parameshwara -: G Parameshwara is the Home Minister of Karnataka. The Home Minister is responsible for maintaining law and order in the state.
Valmiki Corporation case -: The Valmiki Corporation case involves allegations of corruption in the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, which is supposed to help people from Scheduled Tribes.
Deputy CM DK Shivakumar -: DK Shivakumar is the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka. The Deputy Chief Minister assists the Chief Minister in running the state government.
Minister Priyank Kharge -: Priyank Kharge is a minister in the Karnataka government. Ministers are responsible for specific departments or areas of government.
Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation -: This is a government organization in Karnataka that aims to support the development of Scheduled Tribes, which are communities recognized by the government as needing special help.
Scheduled Tribes -: Scheduled Tribes are groups of people in India who are given special recognition and support by the government because they have historically been disadvantaged.
