Highlights
- Tax raids on DK Shivakumar, a Karnataka Minister have ended after 4 days
- Taxmen claimed to have over Rs 11 crore from over 60 different locations
- DK Shivakumar was tasked to manage 43 Congress MLAs from Gujarat
The tax raid on Karnataka Minister DK Shivakumar's home that began on Wednesday and continued till early this morning has ended. Over 60 locations related to the minister in Karnataka and Delhi were searched in the span of four days. Mr Shivakumar was picked up from a luxury resort in Bengaluru where he was staying with 43 lawmakers flown in from Gujarat by the Congress to check a rash of defections ahead of Rajya Sabha Election. From that day onwards he had been questioned - according to his brother till well after midnight.
"I'm not the kind of person that violates the law and the Constitution...the truth will come out," Mr Shivkumar told reporters after emerging from his home at a posh locality in Bengaluru.
The tax officials, however, conducted searches at his in-laws' place today.
Taxmen claimed to have seized over 11 crore rupees in raids on more than 60 locations linked to the Mr Shivakumar.
The state's ruling party the Congress, which hasn't commented on the huge amount of cash that officials say has been recovered, accused the Centre of "misusing" Central agencies, questioning the timing of raids on Mr Shivakumar in a tax evasion case. They said there was no need to have used the central police forces in the raids. "This is a politically motivated raid," said Karnataka's Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah. The tax officials have denied charges and said the timing had nothing to do with the presence of the MLAs from Gujarat.
Mr Shivakumar has been tasked with managing 43 Congress lawmakers from Gujarat sequestered at a Bengaluru resort. Soon after the raid ended, the minister joined forces with the Gujarat lawmakers after they met the Governor Vajubhai Vala, who is also from their home state. They went to Vidhana Soudha and then travelled back to the luxury resort, which has been their home for a week now.
The minister is a powerful leader in the state and is called upon by the party for organising events and for fund-raising. He has been charged with corruption before. Mr Shivakumar is officially very wealthy and is involved in many different businesses. The homes of his relatives, including his brother, D K Suresh, MP from rural Bengaluru, were also searched. The IT team did not recover any cash from Suresh's house according to documents forwarded by Shivakumar aides.