Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Sunday welcomed Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa's decision to handover the phone tapping case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), even as he expressed apprehension if the agency was going to be used to "unleash venomous political vendetta" as has allegedly been done before.
"I welcome the decision of BS Yediyurappa to hand over the phone tapping case to CBI. But, in the past, BJP has used CBI as its puppet to unleash its venomous political vendetta. Hope BJP Karnataka leaders do not have similar intentions this time," Siddaramaiah's tweet read.
The senior Congress leader's remark came after the Karnataka Chief Minister said earlier in the day that the phone tapping case filed during the previous HD Kumaraswamy government will be handed over to the CBI as many prominent leaders, including Siddaramaiah, had demanded a probe into the matter.
"The phone tapping case filed during the previous government will be handed over to the CBI as many leaders including Congress legislative party leader (Siddaramaiah) have demanded a probe in this issue. People of Karnataka also want to know the truth so I have ordered to handover the case to the CBI," Yediyurappa told media persons here.
The allegations of illegal phone tapping against HD Kumaraswamy initially stormed in after rebel JD(S) and Congress MLAs, who were later disqualified from their respective parties, claimed that the former chief minister got their phones tapped.
Reportedly, former state president of JD(S), AH Vishwanath, who was also among the dissenters, alleged that around 300 personal phones of leaders, including senior Congress leader Siddaramiah, were tapped by Kumaraswamy. However, the ex-CM has denied all the allegations.
"I have always asserted that the CM's post is not permanent. To retain such a seat, I had no need to opt for phone tapping. The allegations made against me, by some in this regard, is far from the truth," Kumaraswamy had tweeted.
( With inputs from ANI )