The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : JD (U) demands CBI probe into former police officer's claim

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 06, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

JD (U) demands CBI probe into former police officer's claim

Staff Reporter

`There are instances to show the link between Telgi and Krishna'

BANGALORE: President of the State Janata Dal (United) B. Somashekar has demanded that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe should be ordered into the claim of former police officer Sangram Singh that the Governor of Maharashtra S.M. Krishna had links with the kingpin of the fake stamp paper racket Abdul Karim Telgi.

He told presspersons here on Tuesday that Mr. Sangram Singh had stated during interrogation by the police that there were ample instances to corroborate the existence of links between the two of them.

Mr. Somashekar also objected to Mr. Krishna's decision to file a defamation case against those who had levelled allegations regarding his alleged links with Telgi. Holding the August office of a Governor, Mr. Krishna should know there were means other than approaching a court of law. If he was keen on fighting the case, he should resign as Governor. Failing this, the President should seek his resignation, he said.

In fact, the Congress had been abetting and supporting the fake stamp racket from 1989 onwards, even though, as Revenue Minister, he had come up with an efficient, alternative system, which they never bothered to implement. If it had been implemented, the racket would not have assumed such proportions, he said.

The September 3 rally organised in Bangalore by the Congress was nothing but a waste of money, and it had brought life to a standstill.

"Who is to pay for this? The former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has to explain where the money came from," he said.

He said Mr. Siddaramaiah was deliberately misleading the public by claiming that the All India Progressive Janata Dal had merged with the Congress.

It had merged with the Janata Dal (U) in 2004, and anyone wishing to leave should resign from his party, he pointed out.

"It is strange that Mr. Siddaramaiah, who has been ridiculing the Janata Dal (S) as a party of father and sons, meaning former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his sons, should end up in a party which has been headed by one family," he said.

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