Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Nov 18: Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah slammed the BJP after the party’s official twitter handle tweeted a picture of his late son Rakesh with associates of alleged Bitcoin scam accused Srikrishna alias Sriki. He further urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to order a judicial enquiry into the alleged scam by the Supreme Court judge, including the term of the Congress government headed by him.
''Karnataka BJP is trying to hide their corruption by bringing the name of my deceased son. I urge CM of Karnataka to order a judicial enquiry by Supreme Court to investigate into the bitcoin scam, including our term,'' Siddaramaiah tweeted.
Siddaramaiah (left) and Rakesh
''It has been five years since my son left us, but our family is still grieving. It is unfortunate he will not be able to reply to the allegations on him. Karnataka BJP is trying to get personal to pursue their dirty agenda in politics,'' he alleged.
Karnataka BJP had tweeted a picture of Siddaramaiah’s late son Rakesh Siddaramaiah posing with Hemant Muddappa and Suneesh Hegde and had asked if one can recognise who was in the picture. In addition, they had questioned Siddaramaiah if he has accurate information and also levelled various allegations of illegal activities like drugs and Bitcoin hacking scam.
''Hemant Muddappa and Suneesh Hegde had a close friendship with bitcoin hacker Sriki. It is mentioned in the police document that they had hacked a gaming site and e-portal through Sriki. Please see who is with Suneesh Hegde and Hemant here,'' BJP had said in a tweet with the photo.
Slamming the BJP for dragging his late son Rakesh into the Bitcoin scam, Siddaramaiah asked, ''Then how can we interpret the photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Nirav Modi (alleged fugitive) during the 2018 World Economic Forum?'' He further added, ''It is alleged that an important Karnataka BJP leader had received bitcoin as quid pro quo for mediating the release of Hemant Muddappa when he was arrested with Srikrishna. Nalin Kumar Kateel (State BJP president) may know who that leader is.''
The Bitcoin scam has turned into political slugfest where both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress have been claiming each other’s involvement.
It may be recalled, CCB officials claimed recovery of bitcoins worth Rs nine crore from a city-based hacker Sriki, who is also accused of hacking into government portals, sourcing drugs through the dark net and paying for it through cryptocurrency.