Report details Rs18B ‘payoffs’ to BJP leaders

new delhi — Former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa made payouts of Rs18 billion to senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), judges and lawyers, claimed The Caravan in its report on Friday, further adding that the government did not act, though being aware of the matter since 2017.

The report, which later in the day drew an unusually long response from the Central Board of Direct Taxes, said, according to documents accessed by it, “the incometax department is in possession of copies of diary entries in the handwriting of the prominent BJP leader and the former chief minister of Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa that note payoffs amounting to over Rs18 billion to the BJP’s national leaders, its central committee, and judges and advocates.”

The report claimed, “Yeddyurappa recorded these alleged payouts in a Karnataka state assembly legislator’s 2009 diary, in Kannada, in his own hand.”

Yeddyurappa was chief minister in Karnataka from May 2008 to July 2011. The report is in some ways a reminder to the Jain Hawala diaries that had named senior BJP leader L.K. Advani. After his name figured in the Jain hawala scam, Advani quit as MP, deciding not to contest an election till his name had been cleared.

“The copies of the diary pages note that Yeddyurappa paid the BJP Central Committee Rs10 billion; that he paid the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari Rs 1.5 billion each; that he gave the home minister Rajnath Singh Rs 1 billion; and that he paid the BJP stalwart LK Advani and the senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi Rs500 million each,” reads the report.

“Besides this, the entry notes, Yeddyurappa paid Rs 100 million for “Gadkari’s son’s marriage.” The diary entries also state that Yeddyurappa paid Rs 2,500 million to “judges” and Rs 500 million to “Advocates (fee paid for cases),” but does not mention any names.” —