CM Siddaramaiah Leads Congress Protest Against Central Government’s ED Misuse

Alleging that the Chief Minister was pressured to reveal his name in the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation scam, Congress MLAs and Legislative Council members protested in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the premises of the Vidhan Soudha and expressed their outrage opposing Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials who harassed the Board’s former Managing Director (MD), B Kallesh, to name the CM and Dy CM in the case.Karnataka Congress legislators staged a protest today against the ED, condemning its alleged bid to pressurize an officer to name Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar and former Minister B Nagendra in the irregularities in the tribal Board.

The Congress MLAs and Ministers who took part in the protest led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar slammed the central agency ED for “becoming a puppet in the hands of the Union government.” They raised slogans that PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should resign for allegedly using the ED, CBI and IT Department against Opposition parties.Congress MLAs participated in the protest held before the session of the Legislature despite the rain and expressed outrage that an attempt was being made to destabilize the government.

Speaking on this occasion, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that ED officials interrogated Assistant Director of Social Welfare Department B. Kallesh for two days and obtained a statement. In this case, it was the Chief Minister who put pressure on the officer illegally and get a statement that money has been transferred on the direction of other ministers. A case has been registered. Legal actions will continue, he said. This action of the Central Government has been strongly condemned by the opposition and will be proposed in the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. He also said that he would appeal to the high-command leaders of our party to discuss it in Parliament as well. We are prepared to deal with this legally. Today is a symbol of every fight and the future struggles.

He said that he will discuss the matter on the party platform and take a decision.We have never said that there was no scam in the Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation. As the complaint came to our attention, we formed a SIT team and started an investigation. But it is the first case in the country that ED, CBI and SIT are investigating the same issue. In case of financial irregularities above Rs 25 crore, CBI investigation is of course allowed. There are irregularities in several areas. The Chief Minister questioned why the Enforcement Directorate did not investigate all that time. Out of Rs 187 crore in the Valmiki Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation, Rs 89.63 crore has been transferred. The SIT officials who started the investigation have seized 35 crores in cash and 45 crores in First Finance Cooperative Bank. A total of Rs 85 crores will be recovered.

SIT investigation is 90% complete. At this stage E.D. Officials intervened and threatened the state government officials and tried to reveal the names of the chief minister and ministers and tried to destabilize the Congress government. He lashed out that there was a conspiracy to spoil the authority of me and the government.Earlier there were many investigations against us including CBI, Income Tax Department. A lot of harassment has been done against us by the Income Tax authorities on the direction of the Central Government. He said that he will mention all this in the coming days.The Karnataka Police had on Monday registered an FIR against the two ED officers investigating the tribal Board case at the Wilson Garden Police Station in Bengaluru. The FIR against the two ED officers was based on a police complaint filed by B.Kallesh, the former MD of the Board and incumbent Additional Director in the Social Welfare Department.