Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu are Janardhana Reddy's partners: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Monday brought top BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu in the line of fire, accusing them of having business ties with Karnataka's illegal mining mafia operating under the Reddy brothers.

Seeking to puncture the BJP's campaign against the government on corruption, Singh accused the opposition party of double standards and demanded a probe into Swaraj's and Naidu's "business interests" in the illegal mining going on in Bellary.

"Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu had business relations with the Reddy brothers. This action (arrest) should have come three years ago.

The Reddy brothers were not only indulging in illegal mining, but had also taken protection money from others. They were virtually running an unchallenged empire there," the Congress leader told reporters in Jammu.

Responding to Digvijaya's attack, Swaraj said she was open to any inquiry into the charges leveled by the Congress leader. She suggested that the Prime Minister order a probe into the accusations, headed by none other than Digvijaya Singh.

"I welcome this statement of Digvijaya Singh and I want that this probe should definitely be done so that the truth comes out as only when the truth comes out will I get justice," she told reporters here.

Recalling the Prime Minister's offer in Parliament asking the Leader of Opposition to subject him to any probe, Swaraj invited the prime minister to hold "any investigation against me.

Government can hold any probe against me through any agency. Or as the prime minister had himself made the offer in the House that the Leader of Opposition can investigate the matter, I now say the Prime Minister can himself "hold any investigations against me.

If the prime minister appoints Digvijaya Singh as his representative for such a probe, I will be most happy as then Digvijaya Singh can satisfy his curiosity by conducting his own investigations," Swaraj said. She reiterated that she had "nothing to do with the Reddy brothers, neither in the past nor now."

The Bellary brothers - Janardhan, Karunakar and Somashekhar Reddy - are said to be close to Swaraj.

They are known to often refer to her as their political godmother. The proximity between Swaraj and Reddy brothers has its roots in her 1999 electoral contest against Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Bellary.