Congress' Jagadish Shettar questions BJP's moral right to raise corruption

He asked, why the Prime Minister did not direct Central investigating agencies to do an enquiry into the Karnataka contractor's allegation of demand for 40% commission during BJP's rule in the state

Reacting to the Income Tax department's seizure of over Rs 200 crore from a business group allegedly linked to a Congress Rajya Sabha MP, Congress leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Saturday questioned the BJP's "moral right" to talk about corruption.

He asked, "why the Prime Minister did not direct Central investigating agencies to do an enquiry into the Karnataka contractor's allegation of demand for 40 per cent commission during BJP's rule in the state".

He said that Karnataka Contractors' Association president D Kempanna had submitted documents to Justice Nagamohan Das Commission, constituted by the Siddaramaiah government, to substantiate their allegation.

"If the Prime Minister orders for the enquiry (into the 40 per cent commission allegation), he (Justice Nagamohan Das) ought to give all the documents to the Central government agencies. Why it is not happening? It is because the allegation is against the BJP government," Jagadish Shettar told ANI.

He also demanded the disclosure of details on the I-T department's seizure of around Rs 90 crore from the houses of two government contractors in Bengaluru when the campaigning for the Telangana Assembly election was going on.

The BJP had alleged that the money was meant for the Congress party for the election campaign in the neighbouring state.

" 45 crores each found out in Bengaluru three months back what happened about that. Whose money is that amount? It has to be disclosed by the IT department. BJP people had alleged that this belonged to the Congress party. This amount is regarding the collection of commission," he said.

"As far as corruption is concerned nobody has the moral right to talk about it. Whether that government or this government, whoever is the corrupt, they have to be punished," he said.

The IT department's recent raid was conducted on the premises of Baldeo Sahu and Group of Companies Ltd, a country-liquor manufacturing and selling firm with operations across Odisha's western districts. IT sleuths conducted raids around 25 premises in Odisha and Jharkhand linked to the company. So far IT has seized over Rs 200 crore.

The group is allegedly linked to Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand Dhiraj Sahu.