Bengaluru / Mysuru: The Income Tax department raided the residence of Karnataka Power Minister, and the powerful D.K. Shivakumar and the Eagleton Golf Resort in Bengaluru this morning where 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs are currently holed up. The hospitality of Gujarat legislators is being looked after by Shivakumar.
The tax department raids are underway at 39 locations across the country especially in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Ramanagaram and New Delhi, with all Congress cash-handlers under investigation. So far, the I-T sleuths have recovered Rs. 11 crore in cash from the raids.
Rs. 11 crore cash recovered from wardrobes and under the bed in New Delhi.
Along with Shivakumar’s houses, properties belonging to his Member of Parliament brother D.K. Suresh and also his close associate MLC S. Ravi were raided. The places that have been raided include Shivakumar’s house in Safdarjaung in New Delhi, his house “Kankeri” at Sadashivanagar in Bengaluru, farmhouse at Kodihalli in Ramanagaram, father’s house at Doddahalahalli near Ramanagaram and his wife’s house at Ittigegud in Mysuru. Raids have also been conducted at Shivakumar’s house in Kanakapura.
In Mysuru, the Income Tax officials came to Shivakumar’s in-law’s house at Ittigegud at around 6 am and searches were on till we went to press.
The house, No. 240, is located on Manasara Road and is owned by Shivakumar’s father-in-law Thimmaiah.
Shivakumar’s in-law’s house on Manasara Road at Ittigegud in Mysuru. This house was also raided and documents were examined.
Eyewitnesses said that the I-T sleuths came to the house in two private Toyota Innova SUVs and were holed up inside the house, checking documents. Apart from Ittigegud house, raids have also taken place at two palatial houses in T.K. Layout and Dattagalli. However, it is not clear who owned those houses but sources said that the T.K. Layout house belonged to an astrologer.
A team of 10 tax officials, along with personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force, raided the plush Eagleton Resort at around 7 this morning. According to I-T officials, a total of 39 premises of the minister and his family are being raided by a team of about 120 Income Tax Department officials with the aid of central paramilitary forces.
Shivakumar is considered a trouble-shooter by his Congress party and according to an Association for Democratic Reforms report on crorepati Ministers in 29 States and two Union Territories, Shivakumar is listed as the second richest minister in the country with assets worth Rs. 251 crore.
Sources said that Rs. 11 crore in cash has been recovered from his Safdarjaung residence in New Delhi and the cash was kept inside wardrobes and under a bed. Sources said that each room of the resort where the Gujarat legislators are presently holed up is being searched apart from an audit of bills for their stay, to track down the money trail.
Minister Shivakumar and his brother Suresh also had two separate rooms booked at the resort from the last five days. These rooms were also broken open and searched in their absence, sources said. I-T sleuths have bundled Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Secretary Karthik Kiran and Eagleton Resort Manager Mathew into a room in a resort and are interrogating them. Reports said that some mobile phones have been seized.
Shivakumar’s in-law’s house on Manasara Road at Ittigegud in Mysuru. This house was also raided and documents were examined.
As the raid at the resort was under progress, Shivakumar was brought to the resort by CRPF sleuths and inside a room, Shivakumar tried to tear some of the documents to destroy evidence, sources said.
Ruckus in Rajya Sabha: The Income-Tax raid against Minister Shivakumar was raised in the Rajya Sabha, with the Opposition blaming the NDA government of misusing state agencies.
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma questioned the timing of the raids. “It is now becoming a trend to blatantly misuse powers of the state. This minister was coordinating the stay of the Gujarat MLAs, that is why it is a targeted timing,” he said in the Rajya Sabha.
Union Minister Arun Jaitley countered him saying the Minister “parked himself” in the resort and the area is not immune to conduct searches. “No MLA has been searched. A particular individual had to be searched. He had parked himself in that resort. As of now, they have taken him into his residence. No search or tax officers are at the resort. A Minister of Karnataka has been searched. The resort is not an immunity area. He has been taken to his residence and questioned there,” Jaitley said.
This post was published on August 2, 2017 6:57 pm