Karnataka’s water resources minister Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned from his post on Wednesday after a CD purportedly showing him seeking sexual favours from a woman emerged on Tuesday.
The BJP leader maintained that the allegations were fake but said he was quitting on moral grounds.
“The allegations are far from the truth. There should be an immediate investigation into this. I believe that I am innocent but I resign on moral grounds. Kindly accept my resignation,” he wrote in a letter.
Jarkiholi had allegedly enticed the unidentified woman in the video clip with the offer of a government job.
Several Kannada television channels aired images and photos from the ‘sex CD’ that allegedly featured him in a compromising position with the woman.
There was also an intimate audio conversation between the two. During the conversation, Jarkiholi is heard luring the woman with a government job and admonishing her not to speak loudly since it is Karnataka Bhavan (in Delhi). The veracity of the clip has not been independently confirmed.
The clip has caused a major embarrassment to the BS Yediyurappa government ahead of the Budget session that starts on Thursday.
The 60-year-old comes from one of the most powerful political families in the state and is a sugar baron from Belagavi district.
He was formerly in the Congress and is believed to have played a key role in the defection of 17 Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs that helped the BJP come to power in the state.