Summary:
Bengaluru, Oct 13 (PTI) The Congress in Karnataka on Wednesday found itself in a tight spot after a video showed a purported conversation between the party media coordinator M A Saleem and former Lok Sabha member V S Ugrappa attributing the Congress State president D K Shivakumar"s involvement in a scam when he was a Minister.
Taking strong exception to the clipping that went viral, Shivakumar said he cannot deny that the conversation did not take place and rejected the content of the conversation.
Acting swiftly, the party expelled Saleem from the party for six years and served a show-cause notice to Ugrappa, who is Congress spokesperson, seeking an explanation in three days.
The conversation is said to be related to the scams in the Irrigation Department in which Shivakumar was allegedly involved when he was Irrigation Minister in the coalition government of Congress- JD(S), which ran for 14 months and collapsed in June 2019.
However, Ugrappa clarified Saleem was only briefing him what the BJP people have been talking about the raids carried out by the Income Tax (I-T) Department since October 7 against three major contractors executing irrigation and highway project on 47 premises in four States, including Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The search and seizure by the I-T officials have resulted in detection of undisclosed income of about Rs 750 crore, the I-T Department said in a statement on Tuesday.