Union minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday denied allegations that a mobile phone used to upload a “sting operation” video targeting former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah was delivered to his official residence in New Delhi, accusing the state government of orchestrating a cover-up.
“Where was the accused Ritesh Pandey arrested from Delhi? Was he arrested at my residence? The investigation team did not arrest him at Kumaraswamy’s house. What address did he give in the police case? Vinod Sharma and Prajwal Prasad are associated with Kumaraswamy’s social media team and have been summoned by the Central Crime Branch (CCB). The video surfaced online in September and was subsequently circulated on social media and broadcast by TV channels. CCB personnel also executed a search warrant at a private news channel’s office as part of the probe.
Pandey was arrested on October 24, the first person to be arrested in the case after CCB took over the probe. The controversy centres on footage allegedly recorded in 2023 about an incident said to have occurred in 2011. On October 29, the Bengaluru police said the allegations of sexual abuse portrayed in a viral video linked to Siddaramaiah were part of a fabricated and deliberately constructed narrative.
He may have said he was at Kumaraswamy’s house, but he was arrested in Ghaziabad,” Kumaraswamy said, refuting claims by the Bengaluru police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh. “They later handed the phone over to Prajwal Prasad at Kumaraswamy’s official residence in Delhi,” Singh told reporters, citing Pandey’s statement to the police. On Sunday, the police commissioner told reporters in Bengaluru that the second-hand phone was purchased from a Karol Bagh shop by Vinod Sharma and Ritesh Pandey on the instructions of Prajwal Prasad. On Sunday, the police commissioner said investigators were analysing CCTV footage and financial transaction records to corroborate whether the video was uploaded using the device via Wi-Fi without a SIM card.
