CBI raids residences, office of K’taka Cong leader’s associates

BENGALURU: TheCBIonThursday raided residences and an office of some people linked to senior Congress leader and M PD K Sure sh at five places in Ben ga lu ru, Kan akap ur a and Raman ag ar a for alleged illegal exchange of demonetised currency notes in 2016.

The raids took a political hue with Shivakumar, an MLA, and his MP brother Sure sh calling it a “vindictive act” by the BJP-led government at the Centre to frame them. The CBI said the ra ids were carried out on charges that Corporation Bank chief man- ager B Prakash at Ramanagara, in connivance with ‘unknown others’, had illegally exchanged ₹10 lakh of scrapped currency notes with new ones on November 14, 2016. Prakash and others are also accused of trying to cover up this act by fabricating requisition slips.

The residence of am an named Pad man ab ha ia hal leg ed ly linked to Suresh in Bangalore Rural, Shivananda, deputy tehsildar, Nanjappa in charge of electoral card in SDM office in Kanakapura, and election cell office in Tehsildar office were part of the search.

It is alleged that 120 duplicate voter IDs were issued fro mt eh si ldar office, without any request from voters, between November 10 and November 11, 2016 which were used to exchange the notes. The demonetisation was announced on November 8, 2016 and banks remained closed on November 9.

The Congress accused the B JP of practicing vendetta politics. “It’ s aB JP conspiracy against our leader who played an important role in the government formation in K ar nat aka. They are trying all means to change the political equation there but will never succeed ,” Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said.