Siddu’s son had links with scam? BJP says so

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The slugfest between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress on the raging multicrore Bitcoin scam took a new turn on Thursday with the BJP dragging in late Rakesh Siddaramaiah, the son of former CM Siddaramaiah, into the scandal by putting out a picture of him with two scam accused, in the public domain.

Rakesh passed away overseas in 2017 and a shattered Siddaramaiah brought back his mortal remains to Mysuru in a special flight. Now, with the Bitcoin scandal creating a political storm in the state, Congress and BJP leaders have been accusing each other of being involved and of having links with the alleged scam mastermind, Sri Krishna or Sriki.

On Thursday, the twitter handle of the Karnataka BJP tweeted, “Siddaramaiah had claimed that rich and influential people were involved in the Bitcoin scandal. He has been saying that there is no evidence. Has the involvement of your near and dear ones made you helpless? Or are you scared that this scandal will hit you?’’

“The truth is bitter, but we will still convey it to you. This picture will prove it. Are you taking a U-Turn as the truth is getting unravelled? Mr Siddaramaiah, a Hookah bar, was going on in a prestigious hotel in Bengaluru and it had become the centre of all such activities. Those like Sunish Hegde, Hemanth Muddappa and Sriki might have walked around your home then! Drug and Bitcoin deals were exposed when your government was ruling. Raids were held at one or two places but the investigation was stopped instantly”.

Shameless Reacting to the latest allegation, Siddaramaiah expressed displeasure over his late son being dragged into the scandal and slammed the BJP for its ‘shamelessness.’ Talking to reporters here on Thursday, he said “Rakesh is no more and I will not talk about it. Those who talk about dead people are shameless. They(BJP leaders) are reacting to everything. That means there is something amiss. As the saying goes ‘there is no smoke without a fire.’ Let’s have a judicial probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court for the period from 2013 to unravel the truth”.