• By Kamal Kumar
  • Sat, 28 Sep 2024 02:59 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND

A Bengaluru court on Saturday ordered the filing of an FIR against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over an alleged extortion racket in the guise of an electoral bond scheme, which was scrapped earlier this year by the Supreme Court. Adarsh Iyer, a member of Janaadhikara Sangharsha Sanghatane (JSP), filed the complaint accusing Sitharaman and others of running an extortion racket under the guise of the controversial poll bond scheme.

In his complaint, Iyer not only accused Nirmala Sitharaman but also mentioned several other names such as BJP's national president and Union Health Minister JP Nadda, Karnataka BJP leaders Naleen Kumar Kateel and BY Vijayendra.

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The complainant claimed that corporate entities and businesses were coerced into buying the electoral bonds to the tune of thousands of crore after they were shown fear of ED or CBI. These bonds were cashed by BJP leaders at both centre and state level.

The complaint further added that the scheme resulted in the collection of illicit money for political activities and Sitharaman and other BJP leaders were part of this whole syndicate.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party has denied charges. The party argued that the allegations were politically motivated. It further said that the scheme was a policy matter, not a criminal one.

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"Siddaramaiah is a habitual offender when it comes to cooperating with the investigation agencies. There were 106 cases against Congress leaders, and among those, 64 were absolutely on Siddaramaiah when he was the Chief Minister of Karnataka the last time," said Dr Sudha Halkai, BJP spokesperson.

Siddaramaiah is at the eye of a political storm after an FIR was filed against him in the ongoing Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land allotment case. He questioned why senior leaders like Nirmala Sitharaman and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who are also facing corruption probes, are not being asked to resign.