Bengaluru, May 11: The State Election Commission has barred TV channels from airing the "sting operation" video involving mining baron G Janardhan Reddy, BJP candidate B Sriramulu and a former Chief Justice of India.

The Congress, which released the purported sting operation clips on Thursday, said the ex-CJI took bribe from Reddy and Sriramulu to issue a favourable verdict in the mining scam case.

The video clips were aired by local TV channels on Thursday. Since the allegation was levelled against a former CJI, the SEC directed media outlets not to air the sting operation footage.

Sriramulu, the BJP candidate who is accused of bringing the then topmost judge of the apex court, is contesting from two constituencies - Badami and Molakalmuru. In Badami, he is pitted against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Earlier on Friday, a Congress delegation comprising of Kapil Sibal, Randeep Surjewala and Mukul Wasnik met the EC officials, demanding the disqualification of Sriramulu's candidature.

The Congress leaders also appealed the SEC to uplift the ban on all TV channels from airing the sting operation footage.

"We humbly and respectfully seek directions from the Commission to take all such actions as may be necessary and required in law and direct immediate barring/disqualification of B Sriramulu from contesting Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018," said the memorandum issued by the Congress following the meeting with the EC officials.

Sriramalu is among the eight candidates fielded by the BJP from the "Reddy camp". Two among them are the influential Reddy brothers - G Karunakara Reddy and G Somashekara Reddy - contesting from Harapanahalli and Ballari, respectively.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 11, 2018 07:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).