Congress demands Yediyurappa's resignation after former pollution board chairman accused him of taking bribe

Bengaluru: Dinesh Gundu Rao, in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Goa for the Congress levelled charges of corruption against Karnataka chief minister B.S Yediyurappa and his family. The Congress demanded the removal of the CM after a former chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) M. Sudheendra Rao stated he paid a bribe of Rs 9.5 crore of Rs 16 crore demanded by one of the reatives of Yediyurappa. "The KSPCB is a statutory organization, which has got independent powers.

The Chairman of the Pollution Control Board is a person, who has statutory powers and here we will be showing to you, how the then Chairman, former Chairman now, who was appointed by the Yediyurappa Government in the month of December and who was made to resign in three months in the month of March. He is giving a statement to the journalist of what all has occurred during this process of him becoming a Chairman and him resigning. The Yediyurappa Government and the CM himself, there have been so many exposes on him, right from the time and the coalition government was being toppled. There were audio recordings in which Yediyurappa admitted that it was his own voice, where he is trying to bribe the opposite party MLAs offering huge sums of money, also speaking about how he can manage Supreme Court Judges, how he can manage Speaker and this is on record on the audio tapes and the CM had admitted that it was his own voice," Rao said.

Rao alleged that previously in another expose money was transferred directly to the CM's accounts, his family members' accounts through 56 companies from Bengal. Congress said that the corruption is evident from the undue interference in day-to-day administration by his younger son B.Y. Vijayendra and other close relatives who are accused in many cases.

"Now the latest allegation in this series is by a qualified senior Engineer –who has suffered at the hands of relatives of CM B.S. Yediyurappa, trying to fulfill their insatiable demand for huge sums of money just to secure and remain in a prestigious public office. In the bargain, he has been left high and dry after having sold away all his fixed assets and properties to mobilize the required amounts totalling up to Rs.9.75 Crore to satisfy the greed of CM's close relatives," Rao commented.

In an interview to a Kannada channel Rao has given a first-person narrative of his experience under Yediyurappa's tenure.

Rao was appointed as the Chairman KSPCB on December 30, 2019. In an interview he said that the post was granted to him on a promise that he would make a payment of Rs.16 crore – a deal conveyed through and monitored by one Mariswamy, President, Zilla Panchayat, Bangalore Urban District and a close relative of CM. After assuming the office he was put under tremendous pressure by the said Mariswamy to arrange for immediate payment of the promised amount of Rs. 16 crore.

During the period between January 11 and February 22, 2020, he managed to mobilize varying sums of money totalling up to Rs. 6.22 crore by selling off residential flats owned by his family members as well as gold and silver jewelries belonging to his wife and daughters. Having failed to meet the immediate target of Rs.10 crore fixed by Mariswamy, he further raised a loan of Rs. 2.00 Crore from HDFC Bank by pledging share documents of one of his daughters

While these payments were made in installments, Mariswamy introduced Rao to the trio of Yediyurappa's clan-younger son of Vijayendra, grandson Shashidhar Maradi and a close cousin Sanjay Shree, who in turn start placing fresh demands by insisting upon clearance of about 60 government files pertaining to requests for Consent Certificate (NOC) from KSPCB for several private limited companies running manufacturing-cum-processing industries within and away from Bangalore

Rao in the interview said that each of these files had a "price-tag" on it, as determined and demanded by CM's family members as well as middleman Mariswamy. He went on to say that by obtaining his signatures on these files, the CM's family members have collected not less than Rs.60 crores as bribes from the concerned parties. The CM's relatives are referred to in these conversations by their nicknames as "Viji", "Shashi", "Sanjay"

In several of these cases, Rao alleged that the CM used to call him to clear files. He admitted that it was difficult to give clearance to certain private companies condoning their gross violations of pollution control norms. When he used to express his apprehension before the CM's relatives he was threatened with dire consequences including immediate removal from the post itself although he has completed only 3 months of his stipulated 3-year tenure of the statutory body.

As per Rao, when things come to a flashpoint, the CM's family begins the operation for his removal by putting psychological pressure and even issuing oral threats. When Rao refused to oblige, they managed to obtain his signature on a green sheet of paper ostensibly for submitting an affidavit before Court in an official matter. Later when he was on a pilgrimage trip to Mantralayam in Andhra Pradesh along with his family, some "miscreants" typed out the resignation letter on the signed green sheet of paper obtained from the former KSPCB chairman and submitted it to CM's office, who in turn accepted the resignation.

After having lost everything - position, prestige, honour and wealth - when Rao's wife, daughters and son, approached Mariswamy for return of the huge amount of Rs. 9.75 crore, he allegedly abused them and drove them away.

When Rao himself met Vijayendra for relief, he offered him alternative government posts – Chairperson of either BWSSB or MSIL. Here again, an additional demand of Rs.5 crore is made for giving the new post too.

The party has demanded an independent judicial probe under the supervision of the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court to uncover the entire matter and send the culprits behind bars.

"We urge central agencies like CBI, ED and IT authorities to carry out an exhaustive investigation and uncover the truth. They should not be just lap dogs of the BJP, they should act independently and these are serious allegations, serious revelations made by a very responsible individual and this has been happening at a very-very regular interval and these things are in the notice of the BJP leadership, national leadership, but, they are not acting, they are not doing anything, the biggest question is 'Why'?" Congress made a statement.