The Congress on Friday sought an inquiry by the Lokpal into a news report published by The Caravan that claimed former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa had allegedly made diary entries on paying Rs 1,800 crore to some of the topmost leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to the report, the documents – showing Yeddyurappa’s handwriting in Kannada – have been with the income tax department since 2017. “Copies of these entries have been with the income-tax department since 2017,” The Caravan report states.
According to the report, Yeddyurappa had paid Rs 1,000 crore to the party’s central committee, Rs 150 crore each to ministers Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari, Rs 100 crore to minister Rajnath Singh, Rs 50 crore each to party veterans LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. The report also claims that the diary entry mentions Rs 10 crore paid for “Gadkari’s son’s marriage”.
In addition, there is mention of entries that Yeddyurappa paid Rs 250 crore to “judges” and Rs 50 crore to “Advocates (fee paid for cases), though no names are mentioned. The purported entries in the diary show that 26 people paid Yeddyurappa Rs 2,690 crore.
Yeddyurappa was the chief minister of Karnataka from May 2008 to July 2011, and the entries were made in a 2009 diary. The report mentions that the copy of the diary pages bears his signature.
Following the publication of the report, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said at a press conference, “Why isn’t Narendra Modi ready for an investigation? Now, there is even a Lokpal appointed. Why can’t the first independent investigation be on this issue?”
The news report also carries diary entries of amounts allegedly paid to eight Karnataka lawmakers, some of whom helped Yeddyurappa get support to form the government in 2008 and also became ministers.
