Mantri raided, ` 2 cr recovered
Congress leader and energy minister D.K. Shivakumar, who took on the onerous task of keeping 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat, away from the BJP’s clutches, paid a huge price for his loyalty, when a team of I-T officials, backed by armed CRPF forces, raided his room at the plush Eagleton resort early Wednesday where he had been openly staying since July 28.
Giving him just under an hour to get dressed, he was bundled into a car and driven straight to his home in the city, where officials from the Directorate of Income Tax (Investigation), Karnataka & Goa carried in cash counting machines, while teams of IT officials fanned across the city. DGIT officials told this newspaper that they seized Rs two crore from the minister’s home in Bengaluru.
Congress leader and state energy minister D.K. Shivakumar, who took on the onerous task of keeping 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat, away from the BJP’s clutches, paid a huge price for his loyalty, when a team of I-T officials, backed by armed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) forces, raided his room at the plush Eagleton resort on the outskirts of the city early Wednesday where he had been openly staying since July 28.
Giving him just under an hour to get dressed, he was bundled into a car and driven straight to his home in the city, where officials from the Directorate of Income-Tax (Investigation), Karnataka & Goa carried in cash counting machines, while teams of I-T officials fanned across the city. DGIT officials told this newspaper that they seized `2 crore from the minister’s home in Bengaluru. This was denied by the Congress party as was the claim that he had been shredding documents when the I-T officials walked into his Eagleton resort hotel suite.
The DGIT raided 60 other separate locations across the city, including the home of minister’s brother, D.K. Suresh, MP, and his family home in Kanakpura where his mother was interrogated, as well as the offices of two major real estate and transport firms which allegedly have links with the minister.
Also raided was an apartment on Safdarjung Road in New Delhi which reportedly belongs to the state energy minister. DGIT claimed they seized `8 crore in cash there.
Mr Shivakumar had rushed back from Singapore to ensure that the Congress lawmakers from Gujarat, flown in on July 28 from Ahmedabad to Bengaluru, did not cross sides after six Congress MLAs joined the BJP, ahead of the Aug. 8 RS elections, DGIT officials have told this newspaper that Mr Shivakumar was caught unawares and was grilled for hours on his alleged disproportionate assets running into crores.