Cong urges SC to take on record BSY’s audio clip
The Congress on Monday requested the Supreme Court hearing the MLAs disqualification case to take on record an audio clip in which Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa is purportedly saying, while referring to rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs who jumped ship and were later disqualified, that they were kept in Mumbai during the final days of the coalition government under BJP president Amit Shah’s watch.
The Congress contends that this is proof of the horse trading tactics adopted by the BJP to topple the previous JD(S)Congress coalition government in Karnataka.
The case whether Karnataka Speaker’s decision to disqualify 17 Congress and JD(S) rebel MLAs should be upheld is expected to take a crucial turn after a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana said on Monday that it will consult Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on constituting a bench on Tuesday to consider the new material handed in by the Karnataka Congress.
In the audio clip, BJP chief minister Yediyurappa is purportedly heard hitting out at his BJP rivals for not recognising the “sacrifice” of the disqualified Congress-JD(S) MLAs because of whom the BJP was able to come to power in the state.
He purportedly said this at a recent party meeting in Hubballi over their opposition to give tickets to disqualified CongressJD(S) MLAs for the December 5 Assembly bypolls in 15 Assembly constituencies. The audio clip had surfaced on Friday last.
“I feel I have made a mistake by forcing the 17 ■
DISQUALIFICATION
with concern that an FIR was lodged against the lawyer who appeared for Mr Gupta before the top court. Staying the investigation against the lawyer arising from the FIR, the court ordered that no coercive steps would be taken against him. The court directed the deletion of the name of CM Bhupesh Baghel, who has been arrayed as one of the respondents. The court asked senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the IPS officer, not to politicise the issue by dragging the name of the chief minister.
The apex court, which was unhappy over the tapping of the phones of the IPS officer, had in an earlier hearing refused to quash the FIR against Mr Gupta, including one involving the violation of FCRA by a trust running an eye hospital financed by his father. The court by its September 2, 2019, order had stayed further investigations in the case against IPS officer Gupta.