Onus to furnish evidence on those issuing statements: Bommai

BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said those issuing statements in connection with the police sub-inspector recruitment scam are responsible for what they say, and it is their duty to furnish documents and other evidence.

The statement came against the backdrop of Chittapur Congress MLA and former minister Priyank Kharge’s denial to depose before the CID in connection with his claims in a press conference on April 23 regarding the recruitment scam.

Regarding Kharge’s statement that corruption was rampant in the incumbent BJP government, Bommai said Congress is the ‘Gangotri’ of corruption. Being a person coming from a Congress family, Kharge knows it better, he added.

The CID has served three notices to Kharge asking him to depose before it in connection with his statements in a press conference but he turned it down saying that the notices were served with mala fide intention.

In Belagavi, former CM Siddaramaiah claimed that Karnataka Higher Education Minister CN Ashwath Narayan’s relative secured the fifth rank in the subinspector examination.

The minister refuted the charge and termed it “baseless”.

Stating that getting justice from the government in the scam was difficult, he said police officers, politicians and their relatives are also involved.

Meanwhile, 12 police officers including a deputy inspector general of police have been suspended for their role in the PSI scam.

The government has annulled the PSI recruitment exam after large-scale irregularities came to the fore.

Over 35 people including BJP leader Divya Hagargi, the principal of a college in Kalaburagi, a few police officers, and the gunman of a Congress MLA have been arrested in the case.

The exam was conducted in October last year to fill up 545 posts and over 54,000 people appeared. Allegedly, Rs 75 lakh was collected from a few by middlemen.