Political manoeuvring behind govt pressure on Acharya: Hegde

Bangalore, Feb 9: Former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde today alleged ''some political manoeuvering'' had forced Advocate General B V Acharya to quit as Special Public Prosecutor in the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

Acharya reportedly said yesterday he had been under pressure from the state government to resign from the position of SPP contending that he could not continue in two posts. He chose to resign from the post of Advocate General, and continue as SPP.

"He was holding two posts. I certainly don't find anything wrong in it," Hegde told PTI here.

"Basically, the Karnataka government knew that he was holding this post (of SPP since 2004) and they offered the Advocate General's post to him (in August last year) without asking him to resign from the other post," Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge, pointed out. "Now, to raise all sorts of objections…obviously some political manoeuvring is going on."

He said the Government should now come forward and give the reason for exerting pressure on Acharya to quit.

Hegde refused to give his reaction to the porn scandal involving three BJP MLAs, who had to quit as Ministers following the incident, saying it's "too indecent" for him to comment.

"Where are we going? If these are the people who are our leaders…then are we to follow them in the same manner?" he said.

PTI