Siddaramaiah sting probe yet to unravel motive behind recording video

The police have extensively questioned expelled Congress worker Krupa Alva, Power TV managing director Rakesh Shetty, and a journalist who used a hidden camera to record conversations with a woman in Kerala.

A Bengaluru police investigation into an alleged sting operation targeting former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah is yet to ascertain the purpose of recording the video ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections. It was uploaded on social media on September 26, 2026.

Despite extensively questioning an expelled Congress worker, Krupa Alva, Power TV managing director Rakesh Shetty, and a Power TV journalist who used a hidden camera to record conversations with a woman in Kerala, the police's Central Crime Branch (CCB) is yet to identify the purpose of the sting operation.

"There are some missing links in the investigations. Until the missing links are established, the full details of the probe cannot be revealed," a police source said.

Among these are the exact motives behind the recording of the video and how exactly it reached members of the Opposition JD(S) social media unit in 2026, leading to its uploading in September 2026.

'Sexual abuse allegations part of deliberately constructed narrative'

Police sources said a key aspect of the sting video probe, "the circumstances under which the video was created, the purpose behind recording it nearly 12 years after the alleged incident, and the possible motives", were yet to be unravelled.

"The evidence gathered so far prima facie indicates that the allegations of sexual abuse portrayed in the video are part of a fabricated and deliberately constructed narrative. The statements recorded and evidence collected during the investigation thus far do not substantiate the occurrence of any such incident as depicted in the video," the CCB said last month in a statement on the investigations of a police complaint filed by Siddaramaiah.

The Kerala woman seen in the sting video has provided a statement to the police that she had falsely suggested an association with the Congress at the prompting of others, police sources said. The sources said no evidence had been found of Rs 4 lakh being paid to the woman for making the false claims.

Last week, JD(S) leader and Union minister H D Kumaraswamy stated, "Let's wait and see whether one of the people who carried out the sting operation will be given a clean chit or another person who is involved in the same operation. The police should find why they gave Rs 4 lakh to a Kerala girl."

Alva, who was expelled from the Congress on October 27 over the sting episode, took the police to Kozhikode to identify the woman in the video. She has claimed to have been unaware of the secret recording of the meeting with the woman by the Power TV crew, sources said. Alva was extensively questioned over three days last week.

In one of the sting video recordings of 2023, Alva is heard telling Power TV MD Shetty that she should be helped in her aspiration to contest the Puttur Assembly seat on a Congress ticket in return for her assistance in taking the TV official to meet the woman from Kozhikode.

The expelled Congress worker has sought anticipatory bail in a sessions court, and the order is pending. She also sought bail last week in a magistrate's court but later withdrew the plea after the court pointed out that she had already been granted interim bail by the sessions court when her main anticipatory bail plea was admitted last month.

Siddaramaiah says he wasn't blackmailed

With Siddaramaiah, who became the chief minister in May 2023, stating that he was not blackmailed with the "fake" sting video and Shetty claiming that he never used the sting video for any purpose after finding the claims of the Kerala woman to be false, the exact reasons for the recording of the sting operation are yet to be unravelled, sources said.

"A key aspect of the investigation is to determine whether the recording was deliberately staged, fabricated, or manipulated to create a misleading narrative and serve ulterior motives," the CCB said last month.

Shetty has claimed that he should be considered a witness in the case and has provided documents to the sessions court indicating that the original recording of the video was not leaked by him to the JD(S) social media unit for uploading online.

Shetty's advocates told a session court last week that he was not the creator of the Karnataka Honey Trap channel on YouTube where the video from 2023 was uploaded recently.

Siddaramaiah has alleged in his police complaint that the video was intended to defame and blackmail him. He and his son Yathindra referred to Alva's presence in the video to state that Congress insiders were involved in its creation.

JD(S) media consultant Prajwal Prasad, social media head Chandan H S, and social media workers Mohan Gowda and Vinod Kumar are under investigation over the uploading of the video and the creation of the YouTube channel.

The CCB arrested a Delhi-based JD(S) media facilitator, Ritesh Pandey, on October 23 for purchasing the mobile phone from which the video was uploaded to the internet. He was later released on bail.

Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh stated on November 1 that the mobile phone was handed to Prasad at Kumaraswamy's home in New Delhi.

Kumaraswamy has alleged that Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who was the Congress president going into the 2023 state polls, was behind the 2023 "sting operation" against his intra-party rival Siddaramaiah.

Kumaraswamy has alleged that the 2023 video was used to dethrone Siddaramaiah in May 2026 by Shivakumar. In his response, the chief minister has said "time will reveal" the truth.

"Importantly, the investigation has uncovered leads suggesting that the circulation of the video may have been part of a deliberate attempt to malign and discredit individuals occupying positions of responsibility in the State, influence public perception and generate political controversy and public discord," the CCB said on October 29.