After Congress demanded registration of a corruption case against Karnataka Minister KS Eshwarappa for his alleged role in contractor Santosh Patil's death, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said a thorough investigation is on into the contractor suicide case and it will bring out the truth.
CM Bommai said, "I will not react to baseless allegations. If they have any basis, let them submit it and we will investigate. Preliminary investigation is on and based on that let us see what next," Bommai said.
On Congress leader DK Shivakumar's accusation that the CM is saving the "corrupt Minister" and is a "part of the whole process," Bommai said, "Congress has no moral right to speak about us. People rejected Congress because their regime witnessed many murders. The cases against the outfits facing charges were withdrawn and anarchy prevailed in the State."
Bommai further said his government will not take any actions on the demand for the resignation of minister KS Eshwarappa till the investigation report is obtained.
"Postmortem was conducted yesterday night. Let the preliminary investigation be complete. The next course of action will be decided based on that. The party high command has not interfered in this issue. The party top brass has obtained the details. They have no role here," Bommai said.
Referring to Siddaramaiah's allegations that bribes is being extorted at the Chief Minister's office, Bommai said, "There were allegations of corruption when Siddaramaiah was the Chief Minister. A big scam in BDA had erupted. He is in a responsible post. We will investigate if he cites any specific case. He has no moral right to make such charges."
When asked about similar charges against Ministers Govind Karjol and Sudhakar, CM replied, "Whoever it is, in whichever office it is. I can respond if the allegations are specific."
Further, speaking about the decision of the Contractors' Association to stage a protest on the case, CM said, "There are many Contractors' Associations. I do not know about their decisions. Let them submit if there are any specific cases, we will investigate."
Meanwhile, after the chief minister Bommai said KS Eshwarappa will continue in his cabinet and that an inquiry has been instituted after which a decision will be taken.
The minister announced his resignation on Friday, following the row over his alleged role in the suicide of the contractor. He said that he will hand over his resignation to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai tomorrow.
Eshwarappa said that he does not want to embarrass anybody including the high command leaders of the party.
( With inputs from ANI )
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