A viral sting video of an alleged attempt to bribe the judiciary has ended up becoming the latest reason for name calling between the Congress and the BJP in the forthcoming Karnataka Assembly election. The video which surfaced in the early hours of Thursday shows BJP MP B Sriramulu, who is contesting the election opposite sitting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, allegedly offering a bribe to former chief justice KG Balakrishnan's son-in-law. The poor-quality video shows the son-in-law raising questions about the pending amount of Rs 100 crore from the total bribe amount of Rs 150 crore settled on during the meetings between Janardhan Reddy, Sriramalu, Capt Reddy, Swamiji and Sriranjan.
BJP president Amit Shah has dismissed the video as fake, while speaking to journalists in Bengaluru. "Many fake sting videos surface. Don't believe them blindly. Instead, verify it. There is no need to believe anything just because the Congress is saying so."
Obulapuram Mining Company, owned by Janardhan Reddy, was allegedly involved in illegal mining by removing boundary pillars between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In November 2009, Andhra Pradesh government issued an order prohibiting the illegal operation. In February 2010, a division bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, quashed the state's order and allowed OMC's mining operations to continue. Anticipating that Andhra Pradesh government would challenge the High Court order in Supreme Court through a special leave petition, a communication was exchanged by OMC in order to dismiss the SLP stating that Supreme Court should not interfere in state matters.
This was followed by a hearing in the Supreme Court on March 11, 2010 where the Andhra Pradesh government filed its special leave petition. The top court ordered a survey to determine extent of the claims and asked that status-quo be maintained. The interim survey report, submitted on April 9, 2010 recommended mining be stopped entirely in light of grave irregularities. But on May 10, 2010, the Apex court gave a favourable judgment and allowed OMC to continue its mining operations. The next day Chief Justice Balakrishna retired.
