Bengaluru, 4 Feb

Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Wednesday witnessed an uproar as BJP and JD(S) members protested from the well of the House and demanded the resignation of Excise Minister RB Timmapur over an alleged multi-crore scam in his department.

The Opposition slept in the Assembly overnight on Tuesday in protest, demanding that Timmapur’s resignation over an alleged Rs 6,000 crore scam. Bhajans, religious chants, and sloganeering dominated the overnight agitation.

As the House met for the day on Wednesday, BJP and JD(S) MLAs, who were in the well of the House, shouted slogans.

Leading the charge, Leader of Opposition R Ashoka alleged that in the Excise Department, bribes are being taken for granting licenses and for facilitating transfers.

The wine merchants' association has levelled the allegations about the scam, Ashoka said, adding that related audio recordings have been released. Ashoka said he has provided three pen drives in the House containing audio evidence.

"I urge the Chief Minister to take the Minister's resignation immediately, let there be an inquiry, and after three months if he is proved innocent, take him back into the ministry," he said, adding that KJ George of Congress and KS Eshwarappa, earlier with BJP, had resigned as ministers in the past, following allegations against them.

He also claimed that the "looted money" was being used by the Congress to fund the party in election-bound states.

"Now for Assam polls, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar is the Congress election in-charge and for Kerala, KJ George is the in-charge, and the fund used in these elections is the Karnataka Excise Department's. We have been alleging that Congress is using Karnataka as its ATM, but now it is emerging that Karnataka is a Reserve Bank to fund their elections," he claimed.

The trigger was the arrest of Excise Deputy Commissioner of the Bengaluru Urban District Jagadeesh Naik and two other officials by the Lokayukta sleuths, while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 25 lakh on 16 January.

They were accused of demanding Rs 80 lakh to issue CL-7 (Hotels & Boarding Houses) and a microbrewery licence.

Meanwhile, State BJP President BY Vijayendra said that the audio tape features a senior officer mentioning Timmapur, his son, and even the Chief Minister.