Priyank Kharge says he is being held responsible for someone else's mistake
The reaction came after the Opposition trained guns on him after photos of the minister and his father, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, with Lingaraj Kanni, Congress worker from Kalaburagi who was arrested for allegedly supplying codeine-based cough syrup in Kalyan city, surfaced on social media Sunday.
Kanni was arrested by Maharashtra police on June 22 along with three others for allegedly supplying 120 bottles of the syrup in Kalyan city, in violation of the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Act. Kanni, who is in the pharmaceutical business, allegedly supplied codeine bottles to three other accused. He had joined the Congress from BJP ahead of Assembly elections in 2023.
As per the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, since people use codeine as a drug, it can only be supplied after a prescription and cannot be sold openly.
An officer from Thane police said the arrests took place during police patrolling in Bakri Mandi Road in Kalyan, where a police team observed the three men behaving suspiciously. On searching them, the police found the bottles, following which the trio was placed under arrest.
The three arrested accused were identified as Tausif Surve, 34, a driver; Linkgaraj Allgud, 40; and Irfan Ibrahim. Allgud and Ibrahim are residents of Karnataka. An officer said during interrogation, police sought to find the source of the codeine bottles, which led them to Kanni, who was arrested the same day.
Responding to media queries, Kharge said that the Congress party would not defend his acts. 'We have recommended the district Congress unit to suspend him from the party,' he said.
Kanni, he said, was the president of the Kalaburagi South Block Congress. 'He was a Congress office-bearer… Since he was in the party, it is normal that he shares the stage with me. Only for this reason, he is called my aide,' Kharge said.
'How is that everyone is my aide? In the Bidar case, they (the BJP) alleged that the accused were my aides. In the Belagavi PDO case, the accused was considered my aide,' he said, adding that he was being held responsible for someone else's mistake.
The Congress neither encourages nor accepts such activities. The party condemns it and he will be suspended from the party, he said.
'If something happens in the Kalyana Karnataka region, then Priyank Kharge is held responsible. If it happens in Karnataka, I am responsible. If it happens in Kashmir or Canada, then too I am responsible according to the BJP,' the minister added.
According to the police officer, the four accused were interrogated that led to the role of another accused who is on the run. 'The four accused are currently in judicial custody, and we are looking for the fifth accused,' the officer said.
He added, 'We do not know who shared Kanni's photographs with political leaders, but it has nothing to do with our case. We are focused on getting the fifth accused.'
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