I-T raids on JD(S) lawmakers ahead of polls in Karnataka

Within hours of Karnartaka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy expressing fear that income tax officials would conduct raids in the state on March 27, the official raided premises of JD(S) leader and Karnataka Minor Irrigation Minister CS Puttaraju and his nephew in Mandya and Mysuru in a predawn swoop. Puttaraju oversees the election campaign of Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil who is contesting against BJP-supported independent candidate Sumalatha.

The officials also raided the public works department premises in Hassan where HD Revanna, the Chief Minister’s brother, holds office. The officials are undertaking search and seizure operations at multiple locations in Bengaluru on businesspersons linked to politicians. While JD(S) supporter blocked the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, Congress workers plan to protest outside the income tax office in Bengaluru.

CM says centre is targetting JD(S)

Kumaraswamy took to Twitter to vent his anger and said that BR Balakrishnan, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Taxand Director General (Investigations), Karnataka and Goa, was helping Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his revenge game.

“Highly deplorable to use government machinery, corrupt officials to harass opponents during election time. They have planned to conduct IT raids on our important leaders. This is nothing but revenge politics. We will not be cowed down by this,” Kumaraswamy said in his tweets. IT department officials declined to comment on the development.

However, the raids ahead of elections is not new in Karnataka. Even last year, just before the Assembly elections in the state, the income tax department had conducted as many as 50 searches. It raided the premises of senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar and former V G Siddhartha (former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna’s son-in-law), who owns the cafe chain Cafe Coffee Day. The officials also questioned many PWD contractors in connection with the tax evasion probe last year.

Shivakumar is known to shield Congress legislators from being poached by former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa. Shivakumar’s properties were also raided during the Rajya Sabha election in 2017 when the minister was hosting a group of Gujarat legislators to stop them from defecting to the BJP. Home minister MB Patil condemned the raids and said they will not be suppressed by the misuse of power by BJP and will fight back.

The Chief Minister had warned on March 27 that he would follow what his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Bannerjee did to counter the central agencies. Banerjee had staged a Save the Constitution dharna from February 3-5 in Kolkata after the CBI failed bid to question Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with chit fund cases. Puttaraju said a meeting will be convened soon where mode of protest against these raids will be decided.

(With inputs from agencies)