A case has been registered against Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy after his party leader Janata Dal (Secular) Vijaya Tata accused the former Karnataka chief minister of extortion, police said on Thursday .
In the complaint filed on October 1, Vijay Tata claimed that JD(S) leader Ramesh Gowda visited his home on August 24 and made a call to Malaswamy’s phone number and asked him to speak to the Union Minister, who demanded money from him.
Kumaraswamy allegedly demanded Rs 50 crore from Tata for the Channapatna by-election polls and threatened him that if the money was not arranged, he would find it difficult to run his real estate business and even in Bengaluru Survive.
Tata further claimed in his complaint that Ramesh Gowda told him that Nikhil Kumaraswamy (son of HD Kumaraswamy) had been confirmed to be given a ticket to contest the Channapatna elections, for which he was required 50 Crores.
Nikhil Kumaraswamy was fielded by the JD(S) from Channapatna assembly constituency as his father HD Kumaraswamy was elected in June He vacated the seat after being elected to the Lok Sabha in May.
“During a casual conversation, he handed over the phone to Kumaraswamy. In previous elections, we had borne all the expenses of his campaign. This time, Kumaraswamy told us that it was A matter of prestige and asked us to arrange Rs 50 crore to support his campaign,” Tata claimed.
“I explained that it was not possible for us to arrange the money as all our projects were pending. When I said this, he got very angry. He demanded Rs 50 crore at any cost and warned me that he would not let me Live. “In Bangalore, he told me that it was very difficult to complete my project and then hung up,” he added.
Based on the complaint, the Amruthahalli police filed a case against Kumaraswamy and Ramesh Gowda under Sections 3(5), 308(2), 351(2)) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) 2023.
After the results of the Lok Sabha election were announced on June 4, Kumaraswamy was elected as Member of Parliament for Mandya, Karnataka and was appointed Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Steel.
Meanwhile, in another case, Karnataka BJP MP Basanagouda Patil Yatnal issued a statement accusing “a great leader of allocating 100 Crore” as chief minister of Karnataka and took a subtle dig at Siddaramaiah, for which an FIR was filed.
The FIR was registered after Congress lodged a complaint with the Highland police station.