Had I been in BJP, I would not have gone to jail: DK Shivakumar

Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar, claimed on Monday that he was sent to Tihar jail for not supporting BJP or going along with it, PTI reports. Further, he described the BJP government in the state as the most corrupt in India.

He was responding to a statement by senior BJP leader and state minister KS Eshwarappa, who asked why Shivakumar went to Tihar jail.

When Shivakumar was asked whether he wouldn't have gone to jail had he joined the BJP, he replied that "everything is known. There are records."

Shivakumar was arrested by the Enforcement Department (ED) in a money laundering case on September 3, 2019, and was put in Tihar jail. But he got released on October 23 that year after the Delhi High Court granted him bail.

Shivakumar also demanded a fair probe into the bribery charges levelled by the state contractor's association, against the state government, after saying that the BJP government in Karnataka is the most corrupt in the country.

The Karnataka State Contractors' Association had written Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July that they are being harassed by elected representatives and others and accused them of demanding up to 30 per cent of the tender amount for approving a contract and 5-6 per cent towards the release of 'Letter of Credit' against pending bills.

Although Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai ordered an investigation into the allegations of corruption, Congress is calling for a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court Judge. The Congress had also demanded the governor to invoke Article 356 and impose the president's rule in the state, The Indian Express had reported last week.

In the petition they submitted before the governor, they stated that rampant corruption and maladministration is going on in the state, which has cost several thousand crores of loss to the exchequer. MLAs, MPs and officials have misused it, Congress had alleged.