I-T raids on Karnataka minister hosting Guj MLAs, Cong cries foul
EC STEPS IN Seeks factual report from Centre; Ruckus in both Houses of Parliament as BJP accused of using money, muscle power for votes
Income-Tax officials on Wednesday raided multiple properties linked to DK Shivakumar, a senior minister in Karnataka who is hosting Congress party legislators from Gujarat to avoid a break in their ranks ahead of a close Rajya Sabha election.
I-T officials raided 39 places linked to power minister Shivakumar, allegedly recovering Rs 7.5 crore in cash, most of it from his Delhi home, as well as several documents.
The move triggered an angry response from the Congress, which accused the BJP of carrying out “an unprecedented witch-hunt”. Party leaders noisily protested in Parliament later in the day, forcing multiple adjournments in the Rajya Sabha.
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.
Last week, the Congress flew 42 legislators to a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru in 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.
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 questioned.
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.
The Congress termed the raids as “suspect” and “murder democracy”. Ashok Gehlot, Congress’ Gujarat incharge, said: “Our MLAs are being threatened, money was offered and raids are being conducted.” His party colleague Anand Sharma said: “There is a trend now of abusing state power and agencies of the state. The timing is important and significant. This minister was coordinating the safety of the MLAs.” Shortly after the raids began, Patel hit out at the BJP in tweets.
On the other hand, the I-T department issued a statement denying the raids were related to the stay of the Gujarat MLAs. It said the searches were part of an evidence-gathering exercise. “The search is a continuation of an investigation which has been in progress for a considerable period of time,” it said. “There has been no contact with the MLAs [from Gujarat] and the search team.”