Reacting sharply to Union law minister M Veerappa Moily's reported remarks against him, Karnataka lokayukta N Santosh Hegde on Sunday said he did not need a 'certificate' from the Congress leader for his work.
"I don't need a certificate from Veerappa Moily. It is enough if I get a certificate from the people of Karnataka," said Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge, who is highly regarded in the state for his crusade against corruption.
He was reacting to Moily's reported comments that Karnataka lokayukta's action against the corrupt was "superficial" and that he could have done more.
"What has justice Hegde done so far apart from making statements," Moily was quoted as saying on Saturday.
"I think he may have forgotten that it was I who argued for him and got him out of the JMM scam (payoffs case) in a Delhi court when he was the chief minister without charging a fee of one rupee," Hegde told reporters after a function in Bangalore.
He said he did not know in what context Moily made the comment but added that he would send statistics on the work done by the lokayukta to the Union minister on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}He said he did not know in what context Moily made the comment but added that he would send statistics on the work done by the lokayukta to the Union minister on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}Moily was one of the accused in the Rs 3.5 crore Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs bribery case in which money was allegedly paid to JMM Lok Sabha members to buy their support to the P V Narasimha Rao government in 1993 when it faced a no confidence motion.
Moily, along with other accused including Rao, was however, acquitted.