The State Congress on Wednesday alleged that there was no transparency in the way bitcoin scam was being handled and demanded that the State Government hand over the case to a judge of the Supreme Court.
Congress MLA and former IT Minister Priyank Kharge and MLA and former Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy alleged that the government-controlled agencies had not been conducting a fair investigation into the scam to protect the involvement of the “big people” in the multi-crore cryptocurrency transactions.
“BJP leaders are yet to answer the questions we posed on the scam and we have found more discrepancies on how the BJP Government is handling this case,” Mr. Kharge said. At a press conference here, the Congress leaders claimed that the case was being hushed up to save the the Basavaraj Bommai-led Government.
If Congress leaders were involved in the scam as alleged by the BJP, why did Mr. Bommai not order a probe when he was the Home Minister for nearly two years in the Government led by B.S. Yediyurappa, they asked. While Mr. Bommai claimed that the scam occurred in 2016, the Congress Government was unaware of it then, Mr. Kharge and Mr. Reddy said.
Kateel’s silence
The Congress MLAs questioned the silence maintained by State BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel on the scam and alleged that the whole BJP Government wanted the scam to be closed without any investigation.
Mr. Kharge later tweeted claiming that police in plain clothes attended their press meet. “Looks like the BJP Govt. is under immense pressure ... Why else would they send police officers in plain clothes for INC Karnataka press conference on bitcoin?”
Published - November 18, 2021 08:25 am IST
