Soon after the Congress party, citing a report, accused senior BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa of paying over Rs 1,800 crore to the party's national leaders during his tenure as Karnataka chief minister, the party and the leader himself hit back, calling the documents fake and slamming Congress for resorting to falsehood.
In a post on Facebook, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the “forged and fabricated photocopies manufactured and provided by the Congress Party were passed off as BSY’s diary.” He added:
During the search, as per CBDT statement, photocopies of loose sheets were provided by the Congress leader claiming this to be BSY’s diary. The authorities, as per the statement of the CBDT, go to the root of the matter. BSY played it fair and straight. He offered his handwriting and signatures to the authorities for verification. The Congress leader started distancing himself from the documents. He would not authenticate nor confirm its veracity and not part with the original. The documents appear to be a self-serving forgery of the Congress Party and its leader.Union Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley
Yeddyurappa released an official statement saying the Income Tax department has already probed the matter and found that the documents, handwriting and signature are fake.
The state unit of the party also echoed the same views in a tweet.
Later, addressing a press conference, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress is resorting to falsehood as their defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha election is imminent.
He also said that the documents cited by the Congress party and in The Caravan’s report were handed over to the Income Tax department by Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar, during a raid.
“Shivakumar had himself said that he cannot vouch if the documents were genuine, when the I-T department asked him why he had not lodged a complaint earlier,” Prasad said.
“Shivakumar also could not furnish the original copy of the document when the Central Forensics Laboratory asked for it,” Prasad further said.
Earlier, Surjewala, citing a The Caravan report, stated that Yeddyurappa also paid the party’s central committee, judges and advocates.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi also tweeted attacking the BJP on the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ pitch.
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