After audio leak, Kumaraswamy accuses Karnataka BJP of letting criminals manage govt transfers

“Santro Ravi has been photographed with many state ministers. Please tell me which minister has not been seen in the company of Santro Ravi,” the former chief minister said at a press meet on Tuesday.

“Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who always claims to have courage, should speak up now. Let him order an investigation into the links between Santro Ravi and ministers in his cabinet. Who is this Santro Ravi? What is his connection with the government? Let it be revealed,” Kumaraswamy said. “The government should reveal who provided Santro Ravi access to the state guesthouse at Kumara Krupa until a month ago. The CM and the home minister should reveal all these things to the people of the state.”

“He has carried out all sorts of transactions from the Kumara Krupa guesthouse. Who is behind him? He is heard directing police officers in phone conversations to meet him over their transfers. He tells the officers to address him as Sir. He says the CM addresses him as Sir. All these things should reveal the extent to which the present government has lost its self-respect,” the JD(S) leader said.

In the purported conversation between a police officer from the Bengaluru Rural region and Ravi, when the officer asks whether he can facilitate a transfer, the latter brags about having good connections in the state’s BJP government.

Santro Ravi alias K S Manjunath (48) was accused in several prostitution racket cases in the Mysuru region in 2010-2014. His rackets were allegedly exposed by Odanadi Samsthe, an NGO involved in anti-human trafficking efforts, and police.

Two days before the emergence of the leaked conversation, the Mysuru city police booked Ravi for alleged dowry harassment, assault and atrocities against his wife on the basis of a complaint facilitated by the NGO.

Ravi and the NGO are known to have been bitter rivals for several years. The organisation was at the centre of a case last year where four young girls residing in a hostel run by a powerful Lingayat mutt complained of being sexually assaulted by its head pontiff.

The girls made the allegations with the NGO’s backing and their complaints resulted in the arrest of Shivamurthy Muruga Sharanaru of the Muruga Rajendra Mutt in Chitradurga.

The allegation of the possible involvement of criminal elements in effecting police transfers comes at a time when the BJP has faced embarrassment over attempts to induct several people listed as gangsters by police into the BJP fold in recent weeks.