Overview
- A roughly 3 minute 51 second edited audio‑video clip was posted on social accounts on Monday that purports to record minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan and Davanagere leader Mohammed Siraj discussing support for the SDPI candidate in the April 9 Davanagere South bypoll.
- Both Zameer and Siraj have denied the recording, with Zameer calling it an AI‑generated fabrication, and Siraj has filed a complaint with city cybercrime police who said they will examine the digital material.
- The clip, which reporters have not independently verified, includes lines about the SDPI’s pressure‑cooker symbol and a remark that the result was a ‘question of my reputation,’ and it has revived earlier claims that some local Congress leaders worked against the party’s candidate.
- The leak surfaced days before the new state cabinet is due to be sworn in on June 3, a timing that critics say raises the political cost of any verification or disciplinary decisions about implicated leaders.
- As next steps, police forensics will review the file, Davanagere Congress figures have urged the party high command to verify the tape, and the dispute puts fresh focus on tensions over Muslim representation after the bypoll where Congress won by 5,708 votes and SDPI took an unusually large share.