CM Bommai counters Congress corruption allegations in Vidhana Soudha case

A junior engineer at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru was caught by police with Rs 10 lalkh, leading to Congress making allegations of corruption in the BJP-ruled state. CM Basavaraj Bommai hit back, asking what action was taken when Rs 25 lakh was seized in the office of former minister C Puttarangashetty during the Siddharamaiah rule.

Bengaluru: A case was registered on a junior engineer on Thursday after he was found with Rs 10 lakh cash at the Vidhana Soudha gate here. Refuting claims of corruption, CM Basavaraj Bommai said that an impartial probe has been initiated into the matter and that whoever is involved will be punished. This comes after a junior engineer of the public works department, identified as J. Jagadeesh, was caught with Rs 10 lakh unaccounted cash at Vidhana Soudha gate checkpoint on Wednesday.

Reacting to the opposition's allegations of corruption, CM Bommai while speaking to the media at Tara Hotel in the city, said that Congress does not have the moral right to comment on corruption. Bommai reminded Siddaramaiah, leader of the opposition, of the time when Rs 25 lakh cash was recovered from the office of the latter's minister C Puttarangashetty during their rule. The CM questioned what action was taken and why the minister was not suspended?

The junior engineer case has garnered a lot of traction in the poll-bound state with opposition leaders making unrelenting accusations against the Bommai government. Congress leader Doddalahalli Kempegowda Shivakumar said that the Bommai-led government is a 40 per cent commission government, where everything is on sale and bribery runs deep. Mounting an offensive, D K Shivakumar commented that Vidhana Soudha walls reek of corruption and that no file moves without a commission.

Denying the Congress' claim, minister CC Patil said that a case has been registered in Vidhana Soudha police station in this regard. The police will take action in this case. He further said that the allegations made by the opposition are baseless and far from the truth.