The investigation into allegations of sting operations involving Karnataka chief ministers has landed at the doorstep of Union minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, with Bengaluru police saying the trail of a mobile phone allegedly used to upload a fabricated sting video leads to his official residence in New Delhi.
Two men linked to the case, who police say are part of Kumaraswamy's social media team, are absconding and have not responded to notices, while the only person arrested so far has named one of them as the instigator behind the operation.
Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh shared details of the probe on Sunday, November 1, after the arrest of a man named Ritesh Pandey in Delhi last week. Pandey, a Ghaziabad resident described as a freelance social media influencer, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch for allegedly uploading the fabricated video, which purported to show a sting operation targeting former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah.
He has since been granted bail, and his statement has been recorded by investigators.
According to Singh, Pandey told investigators that he and another man, Vinod Sharma, went to a mobile shop in Delhi's Karol Bagh area and purchased a handset on the instructions of Prajwal Prasad. The two men then went to the residence of Kumaraswamy on Kushak Road in New Delhi and handed over the phone to Prasad, who was inside. Kushak Road is where the Union minister and former Karnataka chief minister's official residence is located.
Singh named Vinod Sharma and Prajwal Prasad as the two other suspects in the case, saying both remain at large. "As of now we have issued notices to Vinod Sharma and Prajwal Prasad. Both of them have not replied to the notice and are absconding. And they have, as per our information, applied for anticipatory bail," Singh told reporters. He added that crucial progress in the investigation can only take place once both men are secured and interrogated.
The commissioner said all three men, Prasad, Pandey and Sharma, work for the social media team of "that office", without specifying which office he meant. The Hindu reported that Prajwal Prasad is a former journalist who currently works with Kumaraswamy's IT team, while Pandey was also described as part of the same team.
Investigators have gathered technical evidence to support the inquiry, including CCTV footage and records of financial transactions between Prasad and Pandey, which are being examined as part of the probe.
The controversy began on October 9, when Congress MLA Ganiga Ravikumar alleged that a Union minister and a Karnataka BJP leader had hired a Delhi-based agency to conduct sting operations targeting 10 Karnataka ministers in order to embarrass the Congress government. Kumaraswamy, who had himself levelled charges of sting operations against his successors, addressed a press conference on the alleged controversy on October 28.
The investigation, which began with allegations against unnamed figures, has now circled back to the minister who first raised the issue, a turn that has given the case its political charge.
Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge said on Sunday that a probe was underway into the sting allegations and that initial findings point to Kumaraswamy's involvement. "As I said, irrefutable evidence is available. They cannot deny it all. Picture abhi baaki hai," Kharge said, using the Hindi film phrase meaning the story is not over yet.
He added that the findings were technical in nature and not merely innuendo or inference. "All technical findings are pointing to the involvement of his people," he said.
Police, however, have been careful to stress the limits of what has been established so far. Singh said Pandey has repeatedly named Prajwal Prasad as the instigator behind procuring the device, but the police maintained that these claims remain subject to verification. "We are currently verifying all the statements and technical facts. The veracity of these claims will be confirmed once the remaining accused are apprehended and interrogated," the commissioner said.
The report does not name Kumaraswamy as an accused in the case, nor does it say he had any knowledge of the video.
That distinction is important, and it frames how the case is likely to develop. What investigators have established, on their account, is a chain involving a phone: purchased in Karol Bagh, delivered at the Kushak Road residence, and used to upload a video that targeted Siddaramaiah. What they have not yet established is who ordered the video, who knew about it, and how far up the chain responsibility extends.
Those questions can only be answered, police say, after Prasad and Sharma are questioned, and both men are currently beyond their reach, having sought anticipatory bail.
The Central Crime Branch has questioned several other people as part of its efforts to establish the sequence of events, including Congress leader Kripa Alva and local news channel anchor Rakesh Shetty. The questioning reflects the tangled nature of the case, in which political rivalries, social media operations and criminal investigation overlap.
A video that circulated online as a sting became, in the police's telling, a fabricated product assembled through a purchased phone and a network of social media workers.
The case also illustrates how Karnataka's politics has increasingly played out through allegations of covert operations. The original charge, that a Delhi agency was hired to sting ministers, was itself an allegation about hidden political warfare. The investigation into that allegation has now produced a second, more concrete set of claims about a specific phone, a specific shop and a specific residence.
Whether the second set of claims leads to charges will depend on evidence that is still being gathered, including the CCTV footage and financial records that police say they are examining.
For Kumaraswamy, a former chief minister and now a Union minister, the probe is politically uncomfortable regardless of its legal outcome. The fact that the investigation has reached his official residence, and that two men described as his social media team members are absconding, ensures that the case will remain in the headlines.
His party, the Janata Dal (Secular), and his allies in the BJP will be watching closely, as will the Congress government in Karnataka, which has seized on the police findings to press its case.
For the Congress, the police briefing offers material for its argument that the sting allegations were a political operation rather than journalism. Kharge's remarks, with their claim of "irrefutable evidence", signal that the state government intends to keep the pressure on. But the police's own caution, that claims remain unverified until the absconding men are interrogated, means the Congress's political case currently runs ahead of the legal one.
The next steps are clear, if not easy. Police must trace Prasad and Sharma, secure their interrogation, and test Pandey's statement against the technical evidence. The anticipatory bail applications will determine whether the two men appear voluntarily or remain out of reach. Until then, the case rests on a phone bought in Karol Bagh, a handover at a minister's residence, and a video that police say was fabricated, with the full story still to be established.
(Reporting based on ThePrint, The Hindu and The South First.)