The Bengaluru police will provide security to the young woman allegedly involved in the sleaze CD case, who is now seeking protection as she fears for her life. "Security will be provided to the woman as sought by her once we identify her and her location," Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant told IANS.
The decision follows a directive from Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, to whom the woman appealed for protection, through a video clip in Kannada that went viral on social media on Saturday night and was also shown on local news channels.
Bommai said, "I have ordered the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has been set up to investigate the CD case, to provide security to the unidentified woman who made the appeal to me in the video clip."
The woman, however, did not disclose her name or whereabouts in the video, though the police suspect that she resides in the city. In the 34-second video clip, the young woman claimed Jarkiholi had promised her a government job and got the sleaze CD made to defame her and her family.
Her video came to light soon after former state Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi filed a complaint in a local police station on Saturday against unnamed people for allegedly conspiring against him and making the CD. He was forced to resign on March 3 after the video was aired on news channels on March 2.
According to a report in the Times of India, the woman has been asked to appear before the SIT for questioning and a notice had been sent to her via email, along with a hard copy delivered at her grandparents’ house in Nidagundi, Vijayapura.
The TOI report also said that the officials of the SIT suspect that the woman could have released the video only after coming to know about the complaint filed by Ramesh Jarkiholi.
In the complaint through his friend and former BJP legislator V, Nagaraju, Jarkiholi said: "Unknown persons have conspired to humiliate me politically, finish my political career and extort money from me."
"We have registered an FIR against unknown persons based on the complaint and transferred it to the SIT to investigate," Pant told reporters earlier in the day.
Jarkiholi defected to the ruling BJP in November 2019 and became minister in February 2020 after winning a bye-election. A minister in the previous Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress government, he had resigned in July 2019 along with 13 Congress and 3 JD(S) rebels, leading to the fall of the 14-month-old coalition ministry on July 23, 2019 and return of the BJP to power under Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.