Contradicting chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda’s claims, former advocate-general B.V. Acharya on Thursday insisted that he resigned as the AG after the government pressured him to quit as special public prosecutor in the wealth case against Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa.
“I am told the BJP high command also took the same view that I should resign as the SPP. However, I was not prepared to do that as that post is assigned to me by the Chief Justice of Karnataka high court.
In that case they wanted me to resign from the post of advocate-general, which I have done”, Mr Acharya said, a day after he stepped down as the AG. Mr Acharya’s remarks are in conflict with the position of Mr Gowda who asserted that government did not pressure him to resign as SPP.
“There is a PIL in court challenging Acharya holding two posts. The government did not want to face any embarrassment on the issue. So I asked him to choose to continue in one of the posts”, Mr Gowda told PTI. The CM said Mr Acharya told him that since he has already worked earlier as advocate-general, he preferred to continue as the SPP and he consented to it.
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Congress: BJP ‘supermarket of corruption’
AGE CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Feb. 9
With the Karnataka government being dogged by one after another controversies in the last two days, the Congress on Thursday compared the BJP with a “supermarket”, which serves “mis-governance, corruption and pornography under one roof”. But this drew strong reaction from the BJP, which suggested that those living in glass houses should not throw stones on others.
Taking a swipe at the main Opposition, Congress leader and information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni accused that the BJP is habitual of pursuing “policy of coercion and arm-twisting” and so its government in Karnataka did not allow state advocate-general B.V. Acharya to perform his duty.
“This incident comes after three BJP ministers violated the sanctity of the Legislative Assembly in Karnataka. Such a government should not be running the state of affairs there. They should relinquish their offices,” Ms Soni said.
Mr Acharya had resigned on Wednesday after the state government asked him to hold the post of either the AG or special public prosecutor.