Court Summons Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Rahul Gandhi; Know Why

Bengaluru: A Court here has summoned Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaih, his deputy DK Shivakumar and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on March 28.

The summons is in connection with the Congress party’s allegations of “40 per cent commission” against the BJP-helmed previous Karnataka government.

Vinod Kumar, a lawyer from BJP’s legal unit, had filed a complaint against Congress leaders over the ‘40 per cent commission’ advertisements. Based on that complaint, the Congress leaders have been asked to appear before a special MP/MLA court next month.

Congress attacked the BJP government with their ‘40% commission’ allegations and also put up ‘PayCM’ posters with former Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai’s image in the run-up to last year’s Karnataka Assembly elections.

Congress used a QR code on posters which took users to a ‘40 per cent Sarkara’ website launched to highlight how a 40% commission rate allegedly became the norm under BJP regime.

Karnataka High Court last week directed the state government to complete the inquiry into ‘40 per cent commission’ allegations within six weeks.

Congress, who unseated BJP last May to form the government in Karnataka, ordered a judicial probe into its allegations against the previous government.

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, on the other hand, recently claimed that the Congress regime takes 50% commissions.