Bengaluru: The cash of over Rs 11 crore has been confiscated so far by the Department of Income Tax as part of ongoing searches in multiple sites linked to Karnataka Energy Minister DK Shivakumar and his associates regarding an alleged case Of tax evasion.
I-T raids on various properties linked to Shivakumar, which houses 44 deputies from the Gujarat Congress in a complex outside Bengaluru, continued Thursday at its facilities in the Safdarjung area in Delhi and Bengaluru.
Official sources said the raids that began early Wednesday morning continued late into the night, with the minister being grilled at his residence in an elegant town in Bengaluru. The raids continued on Thursday as well.
In a swoop down that raised a political storm, the I-T department had conducted Wednesday searches on 64 locations and characteristics linked to Shivakumar in a tax evasion case.
Officials at the I-T department said that Rs 11 crore cash has recovered during the search in properties linked to the minister.
It has been put in charge of 44 deputies housed in the resort, to keep the herd together to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from “poaching” at them before the Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat, Ahmed Patel, political secretary Of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, is facing a tough battle.
The ruling congress in Karnataka will hold a protest in the city on Thursday against incursions in Shivakumar, accusing the center of “dictatorial” and “murdering democracy”.
Shivakumar, from a modest agrarian family, is an influential leader of the Vokkaliga community and also one of the country’s wealthiest ministers of state.
According to the affidavit submitted by him for the 2013 Assembly elections, he had assets above Rs 251 crore, including those of his wife and children and liabilities of over Rs 104 crore.
Fifty-five-year-old Shivakumar, considered a problem solver for Congress in close proximity to the party high command, is a six-time MLA.
He has also made known his main ministerial ambitions, making it clear that he would wait for his time.
I-T officials said Wednesday that a “good amount” of jewelry has been retrieved from a professor’s wardrobe at a Bengaluru university, adding that it is in the name of a relative of Shivakumar.
Officials had said that around Rs 7.9 crore cash has recovered from Delhi and Rs 2.23 crore found in places in the southern state.
Certain investments linked to it in Singapore and a few other foreign locations are also under the department’s scan, they said, adding that some shell firms and their agents allegedly linked to this case were being investigated.
The raids on the compound caused a huge political strike on Wednesday with Parliament disrupted and Congress called it “unprecedented witch hunt” to win a seat of Rajya Sabha.
Prime Minister Siddaramaiah claimed that it was a politically motivated action to silence the voice against the BJP.
