‘Yeddy diary’ dismissed as ‘forged docu’

Bengaluru, March 22: The Income Tax Department on Saturday dismissed as a “forgery document” and a “set of loose papers”, the ‘Yeddyurappa diary’ about alleged bribe payment to top BJP brass that has created a political furore.

The Congress, citing a media report, had on Friday demanded a Lokpal probe into the charge that the state BJP chief had paid `1,800 crore as bribe to the party top brass, which Yeddyurappa had dismissed as “atrocious and malicious.”

“Our conclusion after studying it was that it is a forgery document. It is a set of loose papers,” principal chief Income Tax commissioner of Karnataka-Goa region B.R. Balakrishnan said.

He said, “There was an attempt to just make use of the diary to influence some other investigation, which we have not succumbed to. We have done our job in this case as well.”

The documents, which were photocopies, were seized from Karnataka water resource minister D.K. Shivakumar’s residence during a raid carried out by the Income Tax department on August 2, 2017, he said.

The papers were sent to the forensic science laboratory in Hyderabad, which returned it saying that they need the original papers, Balakrishnan added.

He said that whatever came out in the magazine (Caravan) which broke the story was not part of the Income Tax department's seized material.

Balakrishnan stated that in view of various Supreme Court decisions on admissible evidence, “this particular diary has no evidentiary value.”

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had said at a press conference in New Delhi that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come forward and clarify on the matter. —PTI