Bangalore: Kumaraswamy Claims his Father was Offered Bribe, Deve Gowda Denies

Bangalore, Mar 29 (PTI): Amid the raging storm over bribery charges in defence procurement, former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy today claimed his father H D Deve Gowda was offered bribe by middlemen involved in defence deals when he was the prime minister.

"The middleman had approached me and my father with an offer of bribe to strike a defence deal... This when my father was prime minister in 1996," he told reporters here.

Kumaraswamy, however, did not provide any evidence to support his claim, that adds grist to the current controversy fuelled by Army Chief General V K Singh's claim that he was offered Rs 14 crore kickback in a substandard defence deal.

Asked why he was sharing the details after 16 years, Kumaraswamy said the army chief's revelations had prompted him to do so.

Deve Gowda Trashes Son's Claim of Bribe Offer

Bangalore, Mar 29 (IANS): Former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda Thursday rubbished claims by his son and former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy that he and his father had been offered bribes for defence deals.

Within hours of Kumaraswamy's claim here of middlemen approaching him and his father with bribes, Gowda, who was prime minister during 1996-97, told reporters that "nobody had approached him".

On his son's claim at a press meet, he said he did not know why he had made them.

Kumaraswamy, while making the claim, declined to give details of who sought to bribe him and for which deal and how much bribe was offered.

On why he was revealing this information now, Kumaraswamy said he was provoked into making it public following Army chief General V. K. Singh's claim that he was offered Rs.14 crore for permitting the purchase of sub-standard vehicles for the Indian Army.