Siddaramaiah Slapgate: Former Karnataka CM caught on camera assaulting aide in Mysuru

As protests over the arrest of seven-time legislator DK Sivakumar intensified across Karnataka, senior Congress leader and the state's former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today entangled himself in a controversy after slapped his aide outside the Mysuru Airport.

A video of him during the act went viral on social media after news agency ANI posted it on their Twitter handle.

Karnataka Congress leaders and workers had called for a state-wide protest against Shivakumar's arrest, which has led to swaying tempers within the party, sources said.

Shivakumar had been interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate over the past several days and was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the money laundering case being probed by the investigating agency. The Karnataka High Court had also on last Thursday declined to stay the summons issued by ED in December of 2018 to him in an alleged money laundering case.

Following this, Siddaramiah had taken to Twitter to voice his support for the former legislator and said that Shivakumar will 'come out clean' and the nation will understand the 'ulterior motives' of the BJP.

Today's incident of him slapping brings back an earlier row in 2016 where another video showing him allegedly slapping a person went viral on social media.

Earlier in 2016, the then Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah landed in a row after video footage showing him appearing to slap a person went viral.

Rejecting media reports, Siddaramaiah had said he had not slapped an official and some electronic media were carrying out "false" propaganda against him.

Video footage showing Siddaramaiah losing his cool and raising his hand against a person went viral as TV channels aired it, identifying the purported victim as Ballari Corporation Commissioner PG Ramesh, who, however, had maintained it was not him.

(Inputs from DNAIndia.com)