I-T department and the Election Commission squads have been conducting a series of pre-poll in Karnataka.
BENGALURU: Income Tax (I-T) department conducted several raids on premises of close aids of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in Mandya on Tuesday morning. Raids were also being carried out in Hassan and Bengaluru.
The searches were conducted at the properties of Janata Dal (Secular) leader and Mandya Zilla Panchayat President Nagarathna Swamy, and Zilla Parishad member Timme Swamy. Both Nagarathna and Timme are said to be close aides of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
“The taxpayers covered in today’s search operations are engaged in the business of real estate, quarrying and stone crushing, executing Government contracts, operating petrol bunks, saw mill and managing cooperative Banks. These are sectors which are prone to generation of black money.,” it said.
Five residences in Hassan, one in Bangalore and one in Mandya along with their business premises are covered as part of the search operations, added the department.
On Sunday, rooms of Revenue Minister RB Udhaya Kumar and others were searched by the Election Flying Squad and the I-T department at the MLA hostel here.
Earlier this month, the EC had stopped Kumaraswamy’s vehicle and his convoy for checking. The Chief Minister later accused the poll panel of harassing his family and party men, and called Prime Minister Narendra Modi “worse than Hitler”.
“Modi is a dictator — a man worse than Hitler. He is the worst prime minister who brought a bill to confiscate the personal properties of individuals,” Kumaraswamy told his supporters here on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, Karnataka`s ruling Congress-Janata Dal-Secular alliance on Monday urged the poll panel to transfer the state`s Director General, Income Tax, BR Balakrishnan for “selectively” carrying tax raids on their leaders and contractors and traders close to them.
Balakrishnan had sought action against Kumaraswamy and others for allegedly intimidating I-T officers and obstructing them from discharging their duties during the raids. He also demanded cases be registered against all those who took part in the protests for unlawful assembly, intentional insult, breach of peace, criminal intimidation and threat of injury to public servant under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), reported news agency PTI.
