Income Tax officials conducted raids at several locations in Karnataka on Sunday, October 15, and reportedly seized Rs 40 crore from a builder identified as Santosh Krishnappa. These raids commenced on October 12 and are still ongoing in a few places, with the majority of them concentrated in Bengaluru.
Builder Santosh Krishnappa's residence in Bengaluru's Rajajinagar was searched by 15 officers. The raid began at 6 am on October 14 and concluded the next day. During the questioning, Krishnappa allegedly claimed that the unaccounted money belonged BML Kantharaju, a former MLC. Kantharaju denied the allegation.
While initial reports said that Santosh was a contractor, it was confirmed by the BBMP Contractors Association to TNM that he is a builder but not a member of the Karnataka Contractors Association (KCA). KCA working president Manjunath said, “A series of raids are happening with an attempt to connect it to the contractors association. Ambikapathy was not involved in contract work for years. He is now being removed as a member. Santosh Krishnappa is not a part of the association. We don't have any idea about the money in this case. He was only a sub-contractor taking up contract work through others," he said.
On October 13, IT officials had reportedly found a large amount of cash in an apartment building allegedly linked to R Ambikapathy, the president of the BBMP Contractors’ Association. The money was allegedly found stored in over 20 cardboard boxes. The IT department has not issued an official statement regarding this raid.
The Karnataka Contractors’ Association had previously accused the previous BJP government of demanding a 40% commission on the project's cost to clear bills of contractors, leading to political turmoil in the state. Ambikapathy was a key member of the campaign by the contractors association. This corruption campaign was one of the factors contributing to the BJP's loss of power in Karnataka.
Responding to the IT raids in the state, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that they will not intervene in the issue. “The Income Tax Department has done its job. If money is found in a contractor's house, it is not right to paint it politically. BJP is protesting for Lok Sabha election and political purposes. People don't trust BJP no matter what they protest for.”
“There is no need for the State Government to conduct any investigation in this case,” he said. He said that the allegations of money being diverted to other states which are poll-bound were baseless.