Karnataka minister raided, Cong sees RS election link
PARLIAMENT UPROAR ₹7.5 crore cash seized, party calls it witchhunt by BJP
Tax officials raided on Wednesday multiple properties linked to DK Shivakumar, a top minister in Karnataka who is hosting a group of party legislators from Gujarat to avoid a break in their ranks ahead of a close Rajya Sabha election.
Tax officers raided 64 places in Delhi and Karnataka linked to energy minister Shivakumar as part of investigations into his alleged tax evasion and dodgy investments in real estate. About ₹10 crore in cash, much of it from his Delhi homes, as well as jewellery and investment documents were allegedly recovered.
The move triggered an angry response from the Congress, which accused the BJP of carrying out “an unprecedented witchhunt”. Party leaders raised the matter in parliament, protesting noisily and forcing multiple adjournments in the Rajya Sabha. In Lok Sabha, the party also staged a walkout.
The Congress has accused the BJP of using “money and muscle power” to engineer defections among its legislators in Gujarat, where senior party leader Ahmed Patel is seeking re-election to the Rajya Sabha, on August 8.
But the government said the ‘Eagleton – The Golf Village’, where the Gujarat legislators were camping, had not been raided. Finance minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament that only Shivakumar, who was trying to “hide behind the cover” of the lawmakers at the resort, had been taken for questioning.
Jaitley told the Lok Sabha that tax officials found that Shivakumar was tearing up documents at the resort. “We recovered those papers as well,” he said.
As the Congress accused the government of using its agencies such as CBI, Enforcement Directorate and I-T to target opposition leaders, Jaitley said, “Whether it is a use or abuse, it depends on recovery (from the raids).”
Last week, the Congress flew 42 Gujarat legislators to a resort on the outskirts of the capital of Karnataka, where the party is in power, to keep the flock together. Six of its legislators have quit the party and three of them crossed over to the BJP. More defections can jeopardise Patel’s chances of re-election.
Party spokesman and Gujarat MLA Shaktisinh Gohil contradicted the BJP, saying tax officials entered their resort.
Ashok Gehlot, Congress’ Gujarat in-charge, said: “Our MLAs are being threatened, money was offered and raids are being conducted.”
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China on Wednesday cited a 2006 diplomatic document from talks between the Special Representatives on the border issue to back up its claim that Indian troops had trespassed into Chinese territory, triggering the standoff at Donglang, or Doklam, in June.
Beijing contended the document – a “non-paper” provided by the Indian side during the meeting of the Special Representatives on the boundary issue on May 10, 2006 – indicated the two sides had agreed to the boundary alignment in the Sikkim sector under an 1890 treaty signed by Great Britain and China. “Both sides agree on the boundary alignment in the Sikkim Sector,” the Chinese foreign ministry quoted the non-paper as saying.
In a first, China also floated the idea that New Delhi and Beijing should sign a new boundary convention to replace the 1890 “Convention between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet” that is said to have demarcated the Sikkim boundary.
A non-paper is an informal document, usually without explicit attribution, used in diplomatic negotiations.
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