Santosh Hegde flays Karnataka minister

Former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde slammed state Excise Minister M P Renukacharya for accusing him of being an "agent of the Congress".

Bangalore: Former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh
Hegde on Saturday slammed state Excise Minister M P Renukacharya for
accusing him of being an "agent of the Congress" and "falsely
implicating" former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa in several
cases.
Dismissing the charges made by Renukacharya, he told
reporters here he would not bother to react to the allegations
made by "people without values".

Renukacharya, a loyalist of Yeddyurappa, had yesterday
charged Hegde with being bias in his final report on illegal
mining, leaving out former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh and
other Congress leaders who had also figured in the interim
report. Yeddyurappa was forced to quit by the party central
leadership over the Lokayukta report.

Meanwhile, Yeddyurappa`s supporters, including an MP, today
termed the Lokayukta report on illegal mining as "flawed and
biased".

"There is no role for Yeddyurappa in illegal mining. The
report submitted by Hegde is beyond the scope of terms of
reference set for the probe. It only targetted Yeddyurappa and
BJP government" a booklet authored by four advocates and
released by Bangalore North Lok Sabha member D B Chandregowda
claimed.
Gowda told reporters that the booklet was an endeavour "to
clear the clouds and show more clarity on the report".

He alleged that the Lokayukta report denied principles of
natural justice to Yeddyurappa and deliberately did not go
into role of chief ministers of the Congress, Congress-JDS,
JDS-BJP governments.

The booklet titled "Lokayukta Report, BS Yeddyurappa A
Scapegoat?" said the report ignored the fact that no favours
were shown to Jindal Company by any officer. "UV Singh, in
his report, had not indicted Yeddyurappa," it added.

PTI

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