Days after I-T raids, aide of Congress leader found dead
Investigators say Parameshwara’s assistant may have committed suicide
A 38-year-old personal assistant (PA) to former Karnataka deputy chief minister and Congress leader G Parameshwara allegedly committed suicide in Bengaluru on Saturday, police said.
Bengaluru’s deputy police commissioner (West) B Ramesh said that the body of the PA, Ramesh, was found hanging from a tree on the Gnana Bharathi campus. “It appears that he committed suicide. We are verifying the details,” he said.
A letter was found in the PA’s car that was parked near the place where his body was found. Police had not examined the letter until late on Saturday as they were awaiting the completion of forensic tests on the car.
The police officer said that a local police station was informed that the PA was about to commit suicide.
“It is a huge campus and there is a lot of forest area. It took around one-and-a-half hours and then we got to know that a body was hanging in an isolated road,” he said.
The PA was with Parameshwara when the income tax (I-T) department officials searched medical colleges and other premises linked to the Congress leader on Friday.
Parameshwara called the PA a very good boy, who was with him since he was the Congress state president. “He used to work diligently no matter what the circumstances,” he said.
Parameshwara added that he does not know why the PA took such a drastic step. “Even in the morning, when he left my house, I told him not to worry about these raids and that nothing would happen to him. I cannot believe that he has taken such a step. I do not know if he was under any pressure.”
But Congress leader Siddaramaiah said that he has come to know that the PA told some people that he was being harassed by I-T officials over the past three days. “If this is true, the department is responsible for his death. I am not against the department raiding anybody. They are free to do so. But are not there people in the [ruling] BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] that it wants to raid as well?”
The I-T department issued a statement saying that no search was conducted at the PA’s residence and also no statement of his was recorded. But it admitted that Ramesh was present at Parameshwara’s residence throughout the search proceedings. His presence was recorded in the ‘panchnama’, claimed the statement.
Officials said that they have recovered ~ 9 crore cash and identified over ~ 100 crore worth of undisclosed income so far in searches at 30 locations across the state linked to Parameshwara and former Union minister R L Jalappa.
In Delhi, the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Students Union of India held demonstrations outside Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s house against the I-T raids.
“The BJP needs to stop stooping to such low levels, where they are picking individuals and targeting them because of their political inclinations.
We live in the largest democracy of the world, where every individual has the freedom to choose his or her political path,” said IYC national president B V Srinivas.