Ramesh Jarkiholi CD war: Jarkiholi finally breaks silence on who’s made conspiracy against him

By Subhaschandra Last updated Jan 30, 2023 - 11: 38 am

A simmering personal battle between former BJP minister and MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi and the Karnataka Congress president, D K Shivakumar, which dominated the political narrative in Karnataka in 2021, is back in the headlines. Jarkiholi has threatened to move the CBI through the BJP government in the state and the Union Home Minister to investigate Shivakumar’s role in having the sex CD purportedly featuring him created, after allegedly ensnaring him in a ‘honey trap’. Ramesh Jarkiholi CD war: Ramesh Jarakiholi finally breaks silence on who’s made conspiracy against him.

Jarkiholi, who threatened the same at a press conference Wednesday, had been accused of rape by a young woman and was forced to resign as a minister. He alleged the tape was an extortion bid, a charge that is still being investigated.

Jarkiholi’s press conference followed soon after the Congress lodged a police complaint against him and other BJP leaders, alleging that they had offered Rs 6,000 each to some voters in Belagavi in the run-up to the state Assembly polls.

“I will get the extortion case transferred to the CBI. I have spoken to Amit Shah. I have proof of his [Shivakumar’s] role in the CD episode, of him saying he will spend Rs 40 crore to trap me. The audio is recorded. I will request the state and Union governments to hand over the CD case to the CBI,” Ramesh Jarkiholi said in Belagavi.

He claimed members of a gang were deployed to honey trap him, and that police raids on the home of a gang member had unearthed 60-100 recordings of persons who had been caught on camera or audio in compromising positions. “The case must be probed by the CBI,” Jarkiholi said.

Shivakumar retaliated by saying whether he had asked Jarkiholi to be caught on camera in a compromising position. “This is politics. Did we ask him to collect bribes? Did we ask him to offer bribes to voters? Let him go and complain to whoever he wants,” Shivakumar said.

Initially, in March 2021, when the woman first lodged the complaint, Ramesh Jarkiholi had claimed that the sex video that had emerged in the public domain was fake, but he later gave a statement to the SIT, saying he was honey trapped by a gang.

On February 4, 2022, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Bengaluru Police had filed a closure report in the sexual assault case filed against Jarkiholi by the woman, saying they hadn’t found enough evidence to file a chargesheet. The closure report was challenged by the young woman in the Supreme Court, after which a stay was imposed on further proceedings in the trial court.

Also Read: Ramesh Jarkiholi call emergency press meet to release audio of behind CD case