Onus to furnish evidence on those issuing statements in PSI scam: Karnataka CM Bommai
Bengaluru(PTI): 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 evidences.
The statement came against the backdrop of Chittapur Congress MLA and former minister Priyank Kharge's denial to depose before the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in connection with his claims in a press conference on April 23 regarding the recruitment scam.
"People are responsible for what they say. It is their duty to provide documents and evidences to substantiate their claims," Bommai told reporters here.
He added that the documents submitted by them will be used for investigation.
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.
Bommai further said he did not need to learn lessons on honesty from Kharge.
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 chief minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday claimed that Karnataka Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan's relative secured fifth rank in the sub-inspector examination.
"Ashwath Narayan's relative has also got selected. He scored fifth rank. He alone was spared and others were sent to jail. According to me, without the involvement of government and ministers, this scam would not have happened," the Congress leader told reporters.
Stating that getting justice from the government in the PSI recruitment scam was difficult, he said police officers, politicians and their relatives are also involved.
"The CID can be influenced. We demand that a court monitored investigation should be carried out," Siddaramaiah said.
Ashwath Narayan has come under the attack on previous occasions as well but the minister refuted the charge and termed it "baseless".
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 a 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 connection with the case.
The exam was conducted in October last year to fill up 545 posts and over 54,000 people had written it. It is alleged that Rs 75 lakh was collected from a few candidates by middlemen.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
