The Congress on Friday, March 22, sought an investigation by the Lokpal into a Caravan magazine report that alleged former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa paid a sum of Rs 1,800 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s top brass.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, addressing a press conference, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come forward and clarify whether the BJP leaders took “bribes” to the tune of Rs 1,800 crore or not.
In the Caravan report, journalists Aathira Konkkara and Nileena MS accessed documents that were also in possession of the income-tax department — copies of diary entries in the handwriting of BS Yeddyurappa. These diary entries note payoffs amounting to over Rs 1,800 crore to the BJP’s national leaders, its central committee, and judges and advocates.
Yeddyurappa recorded these alleged payouts, the report said, in a Karnataka state assembly legislator’s 2009 diary. The notations were hand-written in Kannada.
The records in the diary point towards:
- Payment of Rs 1,000 crore to the BJP Central Committee.
- Payment made to finance minister Arun Jaitley and transport minister Nitin Gadkari — Rs 150 crore each.
- Payment of Rs 100 crore to home minister Rajnath Singh.
- Payment of Rs 50 crore each to senior BJP leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
- Payment of Rs 10 crore for “Gadkari’s son’s marriage”.
- Payment of Rs 250 crore to “judges” and of Rs 50 crore to “Advocates (fee paid for cases).” No names, of course, were mentioned.
The entries were noted down against rows for two dates. The payments made to the BJP leaders, the judges and the advocates were noted against January 17, 2009. The entry for the payment made to the BJP Central Committee was noted against January 18, 2009. Caravan magazine noted that each diary page accessed by them bore Yeddyurappa’s signature. The report also added that the IT department obtained the diary in August 2017, when it raided Congress leader DK Shivakumar in Karnataka.
The kicker, however, is not just that this diary exists and it has detailed information about payoffs, but that copies of these entries have been with the income-tax department since 2017; and that there has been no action taken at all. As per the Caravan report, a senior income-tax officer took the matter up to finance minister Arun Jaitley who chose to take no action on the matter. Jaitley’s name too was on the list, after all. The IT officer had reportedly asked if this warranted investigation by the Enforcement Directorate as well.
“The senior official wrote that the IT department ‘protected the interests of the BJP leaders. Since this matter is connected to the BJP leaders of Karnataka and also in Delhi, no further investigation has been done till date’,” The Caravan report read.
Congress party’s Randeep Surjewala at a press conference post the release of the Caravan story said, “Prima facie, this is a case of investigating all BJP leaders, right from the PM and downwards. It is a fit case to be investigated by the newly appointed Lokpal,” he said.
“The diary with BS Yeddyurappa’s signature on it was with the Income Tax Department since 2017. If that is the case why did Modi and the BJP not get it investigated,” Surjewala asked, adding, “Has the Modi government refused permission to order a probe into the payoffs? Is the diary not proof of corruption by the BJP leadership?”
BS Yeddyurappa, ANI reported, rejected the claims. He said, “Congress party and its leaders are bankrupt of ideas, they are frustrated with the growing popularity of the Modi ji, they have lost the battle before it began. I-T Department officials have already proved that the documents are forged and fake.”
BS Yeddyurappa, BJP: Congress party and its leaders are bankrupt of ideas, they are frustrated with growing popularity of the Modi ji, they have lost the battle before it began. I-T Department officials have already proved that the documents are forged and fake. pic.twitter.com/v8lzDIfyMA
— ANI (@ANI) March 22, 2019