Congress with its friendly media has since time immemorial tried to create controversy when there were none. Several such stories, be it the Rafale deal or fantastical tales of how Justice Loya died, have been first published by friendly media and then, picked up by Congress. This time too Congress tried to create a ‘bribegate’ episode sans facts after it was first published on Caravan Magazine.

The Caravan claimed that a diary with notes of Yeddyurappa having paid over Rs 1,800 crore to national BJP leaders such as Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, and Rajanath Singh as well a Chief Justice of India is in possession of the Tax department since 2017. Now, CBDT has come out to refute the story published by Caravan and used by Congress to attack the BJP.

However, this ‘bribegate’ that Congress and The Caravan tried to cried fell flat on its face on several counts.

Yeddyurappa’s signatures don’t match

BS Yeddyurappa’s signature in the so-called documents published by The Caravan and used by Congress to attack BJP don’t match with Yeddyurappa’s signatures on record.

The first signature in the image above is from the document published by The Caravan and the second one is from the official website of BS Yeddyurappa as affixed in an official document.

As revealed by Professor Anand Ranganathan on Twitter, the two signatures are wildly different. The ridges and deviations as marked by the red arrows prove that the two signatures are not identical and perhaps, the signature on the diary papers published by Caravan are fake.

Why were the judge’s names not there?

Following are the purported ‘diary entries’ published by Caravan Magazine.

If one notices, the names of the politicians have been written with remarkable clarity in the purported diary entry. LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley have been mentioned. However, when it comes to the money given to the Judges and Advocates, there is a lump sum amount mentioned but no names written.

This begs an important question: If indeed these are diary entries by BS Yeddyurappa, why would he name everyone else and leave out just the Judges and Advocates? Unless, this is a forged document that left out adding the names of Judges and Advocates just to be safe, in case the forgery is found out?

Who starts a diary entry with a preamble and then signs his own diary?

The Diary entry starts with a declaration that Yeddyurappa had paid the amount to leaders and others to become the chief minister of Karnataka.

Now, if someone was running a clandestine project where he was illicitly paying politicians, judges and advocates off in order to buy the Chief Minister seat, one has to ask why he would start with an incriminating declaration in his own diary entry as if it were being made to a third party.

Also, one would be incredibly silly to believe that Yeddyurappa would, after declaring his nefarious designs in his own diary, sign the document as well. How many people actually sign all their scribbles in a personal diary?

CBDT statement, the final nail in the coffin

After Congress held a press conference based on this dubious story, the CBDT came out with an incriminating statement that acted as the final nail in the coffin of the elaborate Bribegate that Congress and Caravan Magazine were trying to create.

The CBDT made the following incriminating points:

1. These so-called diary entries were given to the raiding party during IT raids at DK Shivakumar’s residence.

2. The loose sheets of papers were photocopies and despite several reminders, DK Shivakumar never submitted the original.

3. DK Shivakumar refused to divulge how he got these papers.

4. When asked why he didn’t go to the authorities, Shivakumar categorically said that he cannot vouch for the genuineness of these papers.

5. BS Yeddyurappa asserted that these documents were forged. He did not keep a diary.

6. The CBDT itself said that these documents seem questionable and were acquired from someone being raided for IT fraud.

Earlier, BJP leader Rajeev Chandrashekhar had also asserted that these fabricated papers are being leaked by Congress leader DK Shivakumar to conceal steal flyover scam diary that named several Congress leaders.