Karnataka assembly elections 2018: Congress attacks PM Modi on corruption, cites Reddy brothers' links

The Congress has chosen to concentrate its attack on Bellary’s Reddy brothers, who are accused in the iron ore mining scam, to mar Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image of an anti-corruption crusader in Karnataka.

It asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah on Wednesday to explain why they went out of the way to give eight BJP tickets to ‘Reddy Brothers and their associates’ — Gali Karunakara Reddy, Gali Somasekhar Reddy, B Sriramulu, Lallesh Reddy, TH Suresh Babu, Sanna Fakirappa and Sai Kumar — when ‘Yeddy-Reddy’ role in Rs 35,000 Cr ‘Iron-Ore Mining Scam’ was categorically established by the then Lokayukta, Justice Santosh Hegde.

“People are saying that under Modi-Shah, the ‘Republic of Bellary’ is back!” the Congress said.

Attacking Modi government for surreptitiously using the CBI, Congress leader Rajiv Shukla said, “When on May 27 last year Amit Shah declared Yeddyurappa as BJP’s chief ministerial face, the CBI immediately set in motion the process to shut down all cases.”

“On June 13, 2017, CBI justified closure of case for two Goa ports on preposterous ground that ‘iron-ore of Goa & Karnataka having been mixed together cannot be identified’. This must be the most fanciful and imaginative explanation to close an FIR ever given by any investigating agency in the world,” he said.

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“Intriguingly, the two illegal iron-ore mining cases in Tamil Nadu were closed as Modi government refused to issue a notification handing over the cases to the CBI, despite consent given by Tamil Nadu government,” Shukla said.

He also said the Karnataka government, however, pre-empted the CBI manufactured clean chit to the Reddy brothers and BS Yeddyurappa by refusing to accept the closure by the agency.

Source: DNA India