Bengaluru: After the furore over CM Siddaramaiah’s Hublot rocked both houses of the Karnataka Legislature, the Dubai-based doctor, who gifted the expensive watch to him came to the rescue of his beleaguered friend.
“All this controversy is uncalled for. I have gifted the watch to my friend Siddaramaiah, whom I have known for more than 30 years now,” Dr Girishchandra Varma is quoted in the New Indian Express.
The doctor further added that he had to force the CM to accept the gift as the latter was unwilling to take it.
“He is too simple a man. He is not someone who would accept gifts from anyone. I had to force him to take this gift by saying that now, I have made it big in life and this was a token of love,” he said.
Clearing the air about the price of the watch, the 55-year-old cardiac surgeon said he had purchased the pre-owned watch in a Dubai market for 75,000 dirhams (about Rs 14 lakh).
However, the opposition parties have been asserting that the CM has been flaunting a Rs 70 lakh watch.
Dr Varma further said that it was only friendship, that drew him to gift the watch to the CM. “I do not own a single room or an inch of land or any business interest in Karnataka. It was only friendship and there is no other reason for presenting the watch,” Dr Varma, who hails from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, but settled in Dubai for the past 10 years said.
The doctor also said that he was deeply hurt by the controversy that his gift created.
