Karnataka: Embarrassment for Congress after party lawmaker says bribery tapes are fake

In a major embarrassment for the Congress party, a lawmaker from Karnataka has claimed that the audio clip, allegedly sent by the BJP to bribe MLAs into joining the saffron party, is fake. One of the people who the Congress alleged was bribed was the lawmaker’s wife.

According to an NDTV report, Shivam Hebbar, the lawmaker from Yellapur, wrote a scathing post on Facebook denouncing the ‘people who brought out the fake audio clip’

In the post written in Kannada, Hebbar wrote that he received "late information that news channels talking of a supposed conversation between my wife and the BJP people". The voice in the recording, he said, was not his wife's and insisted that she has not received any call from BJP leader. "The audio tape is fake. I condemn it," he added.

The Congress, however, maintained that the clips were genuine. VS  Ugrappa said, "Audio clips are genuine, we challenge it be sent to forensic lab."

Earlier, the Congress released incriminating tapes alleging that BJP leaders in the state offered Congress MLAs money and cushy portfolios in exchange of withdrawing their support to the Congress-JD (S) alliance.

In the three sensational tapes that the party released on social media outlets on Saturday ahead of the trust vote, CM BS Yeddyurappa, party's state president Muralidhar Rao and strongman Sriramulu were heard asking Congress MLAs to support the BJP in exchange of money and portfolios.

The party says that it will now file cases against the BJP leaders. "We will pursue this and we will file cases against all the BJP leaders who feature in the tapes, including BS Yeddyurappa, Sriramulu, and Muralidhar Rao. There is prima facie evidence against them, in which they are trying to bribe the MLAs. This is an important matter and shows how the BJP is trampling on the democratic ideals of the country," said Srivatsa YB, Congress's social media president in Karnataka, who released the tapes.