Bangalore, April 27 (Inditop) An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer B.G. Nandakumar, posted as joint secretary to Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, was arrested in Chikmagalur on charges of canvassing support for Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) candidate, an official said Monday.
Nandakumar, a 1999 batch IAS officer, was arrested after complaints from the Congress, the Janata Dal-Secular and the Communist Party of India (CPI) that he was seeking the votes of his community members for BJP candidate in the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency, Chikmagalur Additional Deputy Commissioner Madan Nayak told IANS over phone.
The BJP has fielded its state unit president D.V. Sadananda Gowda in the constituency where voting is slated for April 30. He is pitted against K. Jayaprakash Hegde of the Congress and Radha Sundaresh of the CPI.
A police spokesperson said Nandakumar, who was named joint secretary to the BJP chief minister soon after the party came to power in May last year, was released after he gave an undertaking that he would appear in the court as and when required.
“He was arrested for non-cognizable offences which allows police to release a person after obtaining an undertaking from him on court appearance. There is no need in such cases to produce the arrested in a court immediately. They can be released by the police themselves,” the spokesperson said.
Sadananda Gowda and Yeddyurappa have denied that Nandakumar was seeking votes for the BJP.
“Since opposition parties have levelled the charges and police have filed an FIR (first information report), let the election commission probe and take action,” Gowda told reporters Monday at Chikmagalur.
Yeddyurappa took the same stand at Davangere where he is campaigning for the party candidate.
In Bangalore, the state election authorities said they were investigating the charges.
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