Former Karnataka minister Ramesh Jarkiholi resurfaces, says sleaze CD is ‘100 per cent fake’

March 9, 2021

Former water resource minister Ramesh Jarkiholi who was incommunicado for the past one week ever since he resigned after a sex scandal made an emotional public statement on Tuesday, reiterating that the CD which went viral is ‘100 per cent fake’. He also claimed that the two girls who figured in the sleaze video were given Rs 5 crore each and two apartments abroad.
It may be recalled that on the day the scandal broke Jarkiholi participated in an official meeting regarding the carrying capacity of the Tungabhadra Dam with CM BS Yediyurappa and Basavraj Bommai at 10 am and thereafter proceeded to Mysore.
When the CD sleaze visuals were being aired on vernacular TV channels, he rushed back to Bangalore and all along maintained that they were fake when contacted by the media.
Jarkiholi said this was a political conspiracy to tarnish his image but did not elaborate on who was responsible for it. “I was aware of this four months ago and had even discussed it with family members,” he said.

He said about Rs 20 crore was spent on this by people operating out of two locations — one on Bannerghatta Road and another in Yeshwantpur.
He said he was deeply thankful to leaders and heads of different political parties for supporting him in his hour of need and mentioned CM BS Yediyurappa and former CM HD Kumaraswamy whose government he helped bring down.
While on March 2, RTI activist Dinesh Kalhalli claimed that the woman was a poor job seeker whom Jarkiholi had exploited, he withdrew the complaint four days later.