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Karnataka Congress expels Kripa Alva for six years over Siddaramaiah sting-video row
The Karnataka Congress has expelled former general secretary Kripa Alva for six years over a sting video targeting Siddaramaiah. Police say its sexual abuse allegation is a fabricated narrative. Alva has not answered the show-cause notice; the allegations against her are unproven.
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The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee has expelled its former general secretary, Kripa Alva, for six years, with immediate effect, over her alleged involvement in a sting operation that targeted Congress leaders in the state. The order says her name appeared in the sting case and that her conduct amounts to anti-party activities. Bengaluru police have said that the allegation of sexual abuse in the sting video is a fabricated and deliberately constructed narrative. The allegations against Alva remain unproven, and she has not publicly responded.
The expulsion order
The order was issued by KPCC Vice-President M Narayanaswamy on the instructions of the party's state president. One report says it is dated 27 October. It says the controversy embarrassed the party through negative publicity and media reactions. The party had sent Alva a show-cause notice over her alleged involvement, and as of the reports she had not submitted a response or an explanation. The expulsion cites that failure to respond.
What the video is about
The alleged sting video reportedly shows a woman being questioned about her time with a man and being asked to identify marks on his body. It reportedly contains defamatory content against former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, including an allegation of sexual abuse. Siddaramaiah has said that the video was fabricated in order to blackmail him. He named Alva and Rakesh Shetty, the owner of Power TV, as those behind the alleged plot, and said that he first learned of the case on 26 September. He has obtained a court injunction barring media houses and social media platforms from airing or publishing the video.
Bengaluru police said on Thursday that the sexual abuse allegation was a fabricated and deliberately constructed narrative, and that the statements and evidence collected do not substantiate any incident of the kind described in the video. One report says the police said this on 29 October. Police are investigating the creation, recording, possession, transfer and dissemination of the video, and Alva has appeared before the Crime Branch for questioning.
On 9 October, Congress MLA Ganiga Ravikumar alleged that a Union Minister and a Karnataka BJP leader had hired a Delhi-based agency to target 10 state ministers. Siddaramaiah denied any connection and filed a complaint with the Bengaluru police. On 12 October he sought a court injunction, and a Bengaluru court later issued an interim order barring media and social media platforms from publishing the video. On 17 October, H D Kumaraswamy led a JD(S) march demanding action.
Siddaramaiah said that Alva and Power TV's Rakesh Shetty were behind the sting and called it a blackmail attempt. He said that he had lodged a complaint and had confidence in the investigation. One report quotes him as saying that Shetty had confessed to the police, a claim that the reports found do not confirm. A whistleblower told a Bengaluru news site that the video was allegedly filmed on the instructions of Shetty, and Alva declined to comment on the video at that stage. Police later said that the allegations in it were fabricated.
Alva is a Congress leader and spokesperson from Mangaluru in Dakshina Kannada district. She chaired the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights from 2015 to 2018. She entered public life after her husband, Amar Alva, was shot dead in Mangaluru in 1992, and she later founded the Amar Alva Charitable Trust.
Minister Yathindra Siddaramaiah has publicly accused her of trying to blackmail his father for an election ticket, reportedly for the Puttur Assembly seat, and suggested that her political ambitions in contesting Puttur may have motivated the operation. The reports found do not carry Alva's response to these accusations or to the expulsion.
Police are still investigating who created and circulated the video, and the reports do not say whether anyone has been charged. The court injunction on publishing the video remains in force. The expulsion is a party action and does not decide any of the questions that police and the court are examining.
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