K'taka Police arrest two in 'PayCM' posters row

Bengaluru, Sep 22

The Karnataka Police have arrested two persons in connection with the 'PayCM posters' row that caused severe embarrassment to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and the ruling BJP.

Police sources stated that the two arrested were attached to the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) social media wing.

The arrested were identified as B.R. Naidu, KPCC social media former chairman and one Gagan Yadav, a resident of Devadandra in K.R. Puram in Bengaluru.

High Grounds and Sadashivanagar police did separate operations and nabbed the accused following the instructions by CM Bommai to initiate the investigation in this connection.

The PayCM posters had come up on the streets of Bengaluru, with CM Bommai's QR code. If the QR code is scanned, it would lead to a page which contained corruption charges against the ruling BJP.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner Pratap Reddy stated that the case regarding PayCM posters has been registered under the Public Post Disfigure Act.

Ruling BJP and Congress had begun a war of QR Code posters to trade corruption charges against each other. Opposition Congress came with the idea first by releasing 'PayCM' Posters, the ruling BJP later responded with QR code posters containing Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and state Congress President D.K. Shivakumar on Wednesday.

The PayCM poster released by the Opposition Congress unofficially had a portrait of the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in the poster, and when scanned it leads to 40 per centsarkar.com website. The posters, which had come up at various locations, have severely embarrassed Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and ruling BJP.

The authorities pressed the services of BBMP personnel to take down the posters from walls and other establishments in Bengaluru. BJP MLC M. Ravikumar stated that "Congress leaders have put up our CM's picture to carry out their campaigns, they should make their payments to Rahul Gandhi," he chided.

Answering a question about the 'PayCM' campaign, CM Bommai said that he had ordered an inquiry into the issue to find out who was behind the propaganda. "Anyone can do this with a motive. People will understand, they don't hold ground," he said.

"It's not about my image, they are trying to dent the image of the state and that is why action would be taken against them," he said.