The Anti Corruption Bureau of the Karnataka police have registered an FIR against BJP State President BS Yeddyurappa and Union Minister HN Ananth Kumar on Sunday, over a leaked video released by the Congress, linked to the corruption diaries row, according to ANI.
The ACB registered the FIR after a forensic report reportedly confirmed that the voices in the leaked video were that Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar.
What is the diary issue all about?
A mysterious diary was allegedly first discovered in March 2016 in Karnataka Congress MLC Govindaraju’s house, during a raid conducted by the Income Tax Department. A year after its discovery, it kicked up a stir due to the ‘controversial information’ it contained.
Later, the diary came to be discussed again in political spheres because it is said to have contained information to do with the Steel Flyover, the campaign against which had gathered massive support in Bengaluru.
The BJP claimed that it contained information which implicated CM Siddaramaiah, and that his cronies had paid kickbacks worth Rs 1,000 crore to the Congress high command for the steel flyover project.
The Congress went into damage control mode. It released a video purportedly of BJP state President BS Yeddyurappa and Union Minister Ananth Kumar casually talking about receiving kickbacks.
Soon enough, the controversial diary’s doppelganger emerged. This new diary was released by the Congress, and the party claimed that several BJP leaders were paying kickbacks to BJP National leaders.
The Diary v/s New Diary issue simmered down after Karnataka Law Minister turned the attention to the Sahara diaries, in which the Supreme Court had struck down its relevance as evidence in a kickbacks case.
What does this BSY video contain?
In February this year, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee had released a video in which Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar purportedly discuss how to keep corruption allegations against CM Siddaramaiah and his associates alive until the 2018 polls.
“He (Yeddyurappa) says that he has also given money to the high command but not Rs 1,000 crore,” CM Dhananjay, KPCC Legal Cell Chairman had stated in his complaint to the Bengaluru Cyber Crime Police on February 11.
What is the latest development in the case?
The Cyber Crime wing of the Bengaluru Police had obtained the video from CM Dhananjay when he had filed the complaint.
This video was sent for forensic analysis. According to a report by ANI, the FSL report verified that the voices in the video belong to Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar.
Hence, the Anti Corruption Bureau has registered an FIR against the two BJP leaders.