Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday neither confirmed nor contested accounts that envelopes with lakhs of rupees were handed out as Diwali “gifts” to journalists but he denied having ordered the delivery of the payouts.

He was responding to revelations earlier this week that several reporters found Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh in cash in boxes of Diwali sweets they had received from his office.

“Naananthu yaarigukooda soochaneyannu kottilla (I haven’t instructed anyone,” Bommai, a BJP leader, told reporters in Kannada.

Asked again if he had instructed anyone to hand out cash, he said in Kannada: “I have clearly said I have not instructed anyone.”

The claim worsens the controversy as it would suggest impostors masquerading as the chief minister’s media team members went around media offices and allegedly handed out big amounts like candy, unhindered and right under the nose of the seat of power.

Bommai accused the Congress of using a "toolkit" to defame him with lies.

"This is the result of a Congress toolkit. They are creating a lie. I haven't given any sort of instruction to anyone," he told reporters, after being asked about the gift controversy.

Bommai alleged the Congress had handed out expensive gifts to reporters when the party was in power in the state.

"This is well known -- the media had reported how they (Congress) had handed out iPhones, gold coins and laptops," he said.

He appeared to be alluding to then water resources minister and current state Congress president D.K. Shivakumar's act of gifting MPs from the state an iPhone and a leather bag each.

MPs from the BJP, then in the Opposition, had refused the gifts and the party had raised an outcry, demanding to know the source of the money. Shivakumar, a wealthy businessman, had clarified that the gifts had been bought with his own money.

Bommai did not address the Congress allegation that another BJP minister had handed out Diwali gift hampers containing Scotch whisky, gold coins and expensive wristwatches. Nor was he asked about it.

"What moral right do they (Congress) have to complain? Anyway, someone has lodged a complaint with the Lokayukta, which has a police wing. Let the truth come out," Bommai said.

An NGO, the Janadhikara Sangharsha Parishath, has lodged a complaint with the Lokayukta seeking a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and an investigation by its police wing.

Many reporters who handle the secretariat beat and their chief reporters allegedly received as Diwali gift boxes containing sweets and cash from the chief minister's media relations team. A few reporters have returned their gifts after taking the matter up with their editors, but none has come on record about the matter or lodged a police complaint.

The controversy comes close on the heels of the Congress launching a "PayCM" campaign accusing the chief minister and his government of seeking 40 per cent commissions to clear any bills submitted by contractors.

The Congress has put up "PayCM" posters with a QR code embedded with Bommai's face that takes one to the 40percentsarkara.com website where the party has listed corruption charges against the government.