A key missing suspect in a case of an alleged attempt to extort money from former Karnataka minister Ramesh Jarkiholi has issued a video statement from an undisclosed location, claiming that he had interacted with the young woman in the purported sex CD, who is also missing, on more than a dozen occasions. He claimed that she told him about her grievances.
Naresh Gowda, a former journalist who worked for multiple local TV channels and is considered by police as a key figure in the case, also claimed that he was not linked to the alleged efforts to extort and blackmail Jarkiholi, but knew the woman and was aware of her grievances.
In the video, Gowda said he is in hiding because he fears being framed in the case.
“It is true that the girl is known to me. She approached me through another person because I am a journalist,” he stated.
According to the video statement, Gowda interacted with the woman on 15 to 20 occasions over the Jarkiholi issue but eventually got involved in other personal issues and did not pursue it. The woman later called him and asked him about progress in “getting her justice”, he said in the video.
Gowda’s video comes soon after the family of the missing woman filed a police complaint on March 16 in Belagavi, saying that she had been abducted by unknown persons.
Meanwhile, former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Thursday reiterated that the CD case involves a Rs 5-crore extortion attempt on the former minister. “I had stated earlier that this is a Rs 5-crore deal and that a youth called Naresh is involved. It is all playing out now.,” he said.
Police suspect Gowda had a key role in the release of the CD. Jarkiholi resigned as minister on March 3, a day after TV channels played the CD.
As many as 170 MLAs left the Congress to join other parties during the elections held between 2016-2020, while only 18 BJP legislators switched parties to contest the polls in this period, according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The report said between 2016-2020, 182 of the 405 re-contesting MLAs, who switched political parties, joined the BJP, followed by 38 who joined the Congress and 25 who joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Here’s a look at some of the prominent names that quit parties or switched sides ahead of elections:
Jyotiraditya Scindia
Jyotiraditya Scindia had switched over to the BJP in March 2020 along with 22 supporter MLAs. Their resignation from the Congress and the MP Assembly led to the fall of the Kamal Nath government on March 20, and return of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister on March 23. In his resignation letter, Scindia said he was unable to serve the country and his state while remaining in the Congress.
Suvendu Adhikari
West Bengal political heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari joined the BJP on December 19, 2020 days after he resigned from the Trinamool Congress and gave up his cabinet portfolios in the Mamata Banerjee government. In an open letter addressed to the grassroots members of the Trinamool Congress, Adhikari said West Bengal is standing at a critical juncture as the people of the state are destined to make a choice in the 2021 Assembly elections that will impact them forever. Adhikari said that “an extremely deep rot and malaise” has set in in the Trinamool Congress.
Dinesh Trivedi
On February 12 this year, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Dinesh Trivedi resigned from Rajya Sabha over “violence” taking place in Bengal ahead of assembly elections. He further said that he was feeling ‘restless’, ‘suffocated’ and finding it difficult to work in the TMC for quite some time. Trivedi joined the BJP on March 6, 2021.
Ramesh Jarkiholi
Congress rebel Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned and joined BJP in 2019. In June 2016, he was inducted into the Siddaramaiah-led government of Karnataka as a cabinet minister. He held the Small Scale Industries Ministry portfolio. He was disqualified from the assembly as per the anti-defection law in 2019, but was re-elected to the assembly on a BJP ticket in December 2019.
Tom Vadakkan
Once a key aide to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, prominent spokesperson Tom Vadakkan left the party after serving for almost two decades for its leaders in March 2019. He attacked his party for its stand on the Balakot airstrike as ‘sad’ and joined BJP in the presence of the then party president Amit Shah and minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Sabita Indra Reddy
Sabitha Indra Reddy was Home Minister in the Congress government in united Andhra Pradesh. On June 7, 2019, five Congress MLAs, led by senior MLA Sabita Indra Reddy, met TRS working president K T Rama Rao and submitted a list of 12 MLAs willing to join the ruling party.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Chief and MLA Rita Bahuguna Joshi quit Congress and joined BJP in October 2016. She hit out at Rahul Gandhi and top leaders saying the leadership was not acceptable to people as the grand old party had lost its reputation under them.
Khushbu Sundar
Actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar quit the Congress on Monday to join the BJP saying that she had realised that the nation can only move forward under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She joined the saffron party at its national headquarters. In her career in politics, Khushbu first served in the DMK and then joined Congress. With the BJP, she begins her 3rd innings in politics. Khushbu, while resigning, in a letter to Sonia Gandhi also protested against what she termed as some leaders’ “dictating terms”.
Urmila Matondkar
Bollywood actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar, who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket, quit the party in barely five months saying she did not wish to be used for “petty in-house politics”. “It is obvious that the key functionaries of Mumbai Congress are either unable or not committed to bring about a change and transformation in the organisation for the betterment of the party,” she said in a statement to the media. She later joined the Shiv Sena.
PC Chacko
Kerala Congress leader PC Chacko on Wednesday submitted his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi saying that it had become difficult to be a Congress leader in Kerala. This comes even as the party has been finalising its list in Kerala that goes to polls on April 6. “No democracy left in Congress. Candidate list has not been discussed with the state Congress committee. I have sent my resignation to Sonia Gandhi,” he said. He has, however, denied plans of joining BJP so far.
In a new twist to the controversial CD case involving Ramesh Jarkiholi, the former Karnataka water resource minister, on Tuesday, he told media persons that he was innocent and that the purported CD was “100% fake”. In his 18-minute-long interaction with media persons, the youngest of the Jarkiholi brothers claimed that this whole issue was a conspiracy against him.
He also claimed that he was aware about the CD much in advance and had even informed the high command regarding the same.
“There is no truth in this CD. It’s a conspiracy and I’m innocent. In fact I got to know about the CD four month’s back and told my brother Balachandra that I had done nothing wrong and it wasn’t me. I even got a call from high command asking to to take legal help. But I said I would fight it out,” the Belgavi MLA claimed.
Jarkiholi went on to add that this whole incident had hurt his wife and children the most. He said that he would avenge the honour of his extended family and supporters in Belgavi.
“I’m told ₹5 crore was exchanged in this whole conspiracy . Also two flats were given in a foreign country… I don’t know much details but whoever has out me in this situation today, I will not let him go until I send him to jail”.
Claiming innocence, Jarkiholi almost choked, telling media that the alleged CD was very unlike his character. He said he was a religious man who frequented temples and was in fact at a temple itself, when the so called CD was leaked to the media.
“I was in temple that evening. I came back and thought about the outcomes. My resignation was my own decision. I waited one night and the gave my resignation the next morning by 9:30am. CM didn’t ask me for it” he added.
Jarkiholi said that this whole conspiracy was strategised around the Orion Mall and Yeshwanthpur areas of Bengaluru.
The Jarkiholi Brothers have approached the CM and home minister Basavaj Bommai asking the govt to hand over the case to the CID at the earliest.
Karnataka Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi was embroiled in a controversy on Tuesday as a police complaint was registered against him alleging sexual harassment of a ‘job aspirant’ and issuing threats to her and family of dire consequences. Even as social activist Dinesh Kallahalli approached the Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant, some news channels started airing Jarkiholi’s purported intimate videos and photographs with the ‘job aspirant.’ It is not yet known how old is the video.
After meeting Pant, Kallahalli told reporters he has been asked to approach the Cubbon Park Police Station to lodge the complaint and to get an FIR registered there. He later filed a complaint at Cubbon Park in central Bengaluru.
Kallahalli said the woman did not wish to come out in the open and approached him to lodge a complaint alleging the minister exploited her by offering a job. In the complaint, Kallahalli said when the woman from a poor family approached the minister for making a short film, he had sexually exploited her by assuring a job in the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited. He alleged that when the minister got to know that the woman had the ‘CD’ (objectionable videos), he threatened her and her family.
“Since I am into social activism, they approached me with the complaint and the CD and shared all the details. Please investigate the truth of the matter, file a criminal case against the minister and provide protection to the victim,” the complaint read.
Union Minister for Coals and Mines Pralhad Joshi said he was not aware of the fact. Speaking to reporters in Hubballi, he said if a matter like this has surfaced, it must be investigated to find out the truth. He also said he would speak to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on the matter.
With the budget session of the legislature set to be begin on March 4, the government is in a dilemma. The Congress has already begun protests demanding that the minister be sacked with the Youth Congress holding a demonstration on Tuesday evening.
Speaking to reporters late on Tuesday night, Jarkiholi said he was not aware who Kallahalli is. “I am willing to face any inquiry, and the legislature session,” he said.
While the CM refused to react to the allegations, his son BY Vijayendra, one of the BJP’s top strategists in Karnataka, said he was not aware of the incident either.
Another senior minister, Jagdish Shettar, said the victim herself has not given any statement or complaint so the case must be probed first.
Jarkiholi is among the 17 MLAs who had switched over from the Congress and JD(S) last year to help the BJP come to power in Karnataka. In fact, he was instrumental in other colleagues’ defecting to the saffron camp. Hence, the government is caught in a quandary on how to take action.
Such a scandal is not new to the BJP in Karnataka. Ten years ago, three ministers in the then Sadananda Gowda-led government of the BJP had been caught allegedly watching a blue film in the Assembly.
Earlier, another minister in the current cabinet had also been embroiled in a controversy after a video of him allegedly in a compromising position with a male BJP worker went viral on social media.
