Bengaluru, July 16: In a scathing attack on the Karnataka Chief Minister, the BJP on Tuesday accused H D Kumaraswamy of using state machineries to blackmail anyone who opposes his government.
BJP's allegations came after Congress MLA R Roshan Baig was detained by a Special Investigation Team in connection with the IMA money laundering case from Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport last night. SIT probing the IMA ponzi scam had reportedly claimed he was trying to run away. Shortly after Baig was detained, Kumaraswamy took to Twitter to claim a BJP legislator was present with Baig on a chartered plane. He alleged that the presence of the legislator proved the party's involvement in destabilising the Congress-JDS government. Today, series of tweets were posted on Karnataka BJP's official handle asking HDK to explain his secret meeting with Baig. "If Mr Baig was an accused, why did CM @hd_kumaraswamy meet him on the night of 12th July Should CM not come out in open & explain about his secret meeting? @hd_kumaraswamy should immediately stop using state Machineries to blackmail anyone who opposes his govt. CM @hd_kumaraswamy met @rroshanbaig at Taj west end on the night of July 12th," said one of the tweets. "Everything was fine until Mr Baig pledged his support to Kumaraswamy's govt but the minute he withdrew his support opportunist @hd_kumaraswamy started using state Machineries to blackmail the MLA," another tweet said. Baig is one of 16 MLAs of the Congress-JDS coalition government who resigned as legislators between July 1 and 10. He was also suspended last month from the Congress after he called the party's general secretary K C Venugopal a buffoon after the Lok Sabha results were announced. Baig earlier joined 16 rebel MLAs who tendered their resignation from the assembly. Hours after his resignation on July 9, the SIT reportedly served him a notice asked him to appear on July 11 but the MLA sought time and said he would appear later, but did not turn up.