I-T raids on K’taka minister end, Cong MLAs meet guv

The income tax raids at the residence of Karnataka energy minister DK Shivakumar ended on Saturday after four days with the minister thanking his colleagues in state Congress for their support.

Coming out of his house after the I-T officials left the premises, Shivakumar told mediapersons he will “speak as soon as the I-T department releases its report on the raids”. He said he was headed towards the resort where the group of Congress MLAs from Gujarat were staying.

The 44 party MLAs had been staying at the resort outside Bengaluru since July 29. On Saturday, even they had a day out as they visited the Raj Bhavan here to meet Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala, who hails from Gujarat and was a former Speaker of the assembly there.

The MLAs were brought to the resort to ensure the election of senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who is vying for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat.

Shaktisinh Gohil, a spokesperson for the party, said the legislators informed Vala about the BJP’s “attempts at trying to lure them with bribes of Rs 15 crore”.

A video clip claiming to contain visuals of income tax raids on a Karnataka minister has turned out to be fake, highlighting once again the challenge traditional and social media outlets are facing in the age of manufactured news.

The video shared on Twitter by the handle @DurgaMenon is “that of an Income Tax raid on T&T law firm in Delhi founded by Rohit Tandon”, media outlet AltNews pointed out in a report.

@DurgaMenon’s account

Explaining the decision to meet Vala, a senior leader of the BJP in Gujarat, Gohil said it was done “because the governor is above party politics, and is a protector of the Constitution.”

Later in the day, minister Shivakumar also apologised for remarks made by his mother against chief minister Siddarmaiah in which she accused the latter of targeting her son.

In a letter, Shivakumar apologised on behalf of his “uneducated” is followed by PM Narendra Modi and Union power minister Piyush Goyal, among other senior BJP leaders.

The income tax department raided on Wednesday 64 places in Delhi and Karnataka linked to energy minister DK Shivakumar, investigating his alleged tax evasion and dodgy investments in real estate.

Shivakumar was hosting Congress legislators from Gujarat to avoid a break in party ranks ahead of a close Rajya Sabha election.

The 40-second clip has been retweeted 377 times on the microblogging website.

mother, saying she did not know whose jurisdiction the I-T department came under.

“I would like to tender my apology to the chief minister and the people of the state for the remarks made by my mother,” his letter read. “Some media organisations used my mother’s innocence to make her say these things.”

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah accused the BJP, saying the raids were politically motivated.