Karnataka Minister K S Eashwarappa to step down, amid row over contractor's suicide

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 14 (ANI): Karnataka Minister KS Eshwarappa, who is caught in a row following his alleged role in the suicide of a contractor on Thursday said that he will hand over his resignation to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai tomorrow.
"Tomorrow, I'm handing over the resignation letter to CM. I thank you all for your co-operation," the Minister told reporters here.
Eshwarappa said that he does not want to embarrass anybody including the high command leaders of the party.
The minister's announcement came after chief minister Bommai said that Eshwarappa will continue in his cabinet and that an inquiry has been instituted after which a decision will be taken.
Speaking to ANI, Bommai said, "The postmortem was done yesterday and now preliminary inquiry (report) will come and based on that we'll proceed."
Notably, following the allegations, Congress and other political parties had demanded the removal of the Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, said, "He (contractor Satish Patil) has accused top ministers of demanding money. He wrote all this, the Congress party is not blaming them. They have already been accused several times. If they are not taking any action, it is not fair."
Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Binoy Viswam had also written to Bommai demanding the removal of Eshwarappa from the state cabinet.
Earlier, Eshwarappa had said he would not resign under pressure from the opposition and added that "no death note was found near the body".
"I have not seen the face of Santosh Patil, but as journalists are saying that he used to go to Delhi often. It should be investigated who booked his flight tickets and why," he had said.
The brother of the deceased contractor on Wednesday demanded the arrest of Eshwarappa "and his close aides Ramesh and Basawaraj". (ANI)