Income Tax sleuths raids over five locations ahead of Karnataka LS polls

The Income Tax (I-T) sleuths on Wednesday conducted simultaneous raids at five plus locations in south Bengaluru, belonging to businessmen and associates of prominent political leaders ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress leaders on Wednesday openly criticised the I-T department for targeting their close associates. 

The raids were part of the ongoing operations by the I-T department over the last couple of days. In the last five days, close to 16 locations falling under the Bangalore South constituency were searched by I-T officials. 

Close aide of leader

Well-placed sources, who are in the know about the searches, told DH that Wednesday’s searches were mostly conducted in Konanakunte, in the locations belonging to a businessman who is also a close aide of a prominent political leader. A few documents were taken into possession during the raids. 

According to sources, Wednesday’s search focused on places belonging to a prominent leader who organised campaign rallies for the Congress in Bangalore south constituency. 

During the Congress election campaign in Bengaluru, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, said that the I-T department was deliberately targeting Congress workers to obstruct election campaigning. 

“Aren’t the BJP and JDS candidates distributing money? Why are there no raids on them? The I-T department is ready with a list of people to target, and they are going by that,” said the DCM.

“They are pressuring contractors to attribute the money they found on them to D K Shivakumar. They raided the house of D K Suresh’s driver and manhandled his wife and children during the raid. The I-T department could not find any cash in any of the raids on our party workers. This is a deliberate ploy to obstruct our election campaign. They are specifically targeting Bengaluru Rural District, fearing election loss,” he added. 

Protest by Congress

Lashing out at the I-T department, the Congress party workers staged aggressive protests on Wednesday. They claimed that the raids were deliberately carried out on the associates of the Congress leaders and accused the BJP of orchestrating them. 

Condemning the raid on the properties of Gangadhar, a former corporator and an associate of Congress MP D K Suresh, protesters said:

“Gangadhar has a lot of land and is wealthy. There are a lot of wealthier people in the BJP, but no I-T raids are conducted on them. The I-T department is targeting associates of D K Shivakumar and D K Suresh to obstruct their campaigning.”