In what is set to snowball into yet another political controversy between the Congress and the BJP, the Income Tax department on Wednesday morning raided the house of Karnataka Energy Minister and influential Congress leader DK Shivakumar, his brother and MP DK Suresh, and MLC S Ravi, and also the Eagleton Resort in Bidadi where Gujarat Congress MLAs have been ‘relaxing’ after rumours of a rebellion among the ranks.
Raids are also on at Shivakumar's residence in New Delhi, and according to News 18, Rs 5 crore in cash has been recovered from the K'taka Energy Minister's Delhi home.
The department also said, "The timing of the search was decided well in advance. The events involving certain MLAs of another state being brought to Karnataka were unforeseen and unpredictable events. The Minister being searched was staying at a resort near Bangalore where some MLAs from another state are put up. Hence the Minister’s room alone is being searched. The search team has no concern with the MLAs and there has been no contact with MLAs and the search team. It is again reiterated that the Income Tax search is only on one Karnataka Minister."
The raids began at 7 am. A large contingent of I-T officials are present at the resort.
Forty-four MLAs from Gujarat were flown in from Gujarat in the wee hours of July 29 after 6 of their peers jumped ship to BJP in Gujaratwithin 24 hours. With a Congress government in Karnataka, the state was seen as a safe haven for MLAs from being poached by the Congress. According to sources, the Congress MLAs were in the trusted hands of DK Shivakumar and his brother and MP DK Suresh, who were handling the logistics of the emergency trip.
Sources have confirmed to The News Minute that the raids are being conducted at the resort in Bidadi and DK Shivakumar’s home in Sadshiv Nagar. All rooms and vehicles in the resort are being checked on suspicions of huge sums of money being stashed away at the resort.
The resort where 42 MLAs from Gujarat have been stashed away by the Congress to prevent defection to the BJP, was slapped with a Rs 982 crore as penalty for regularisation of 77 acres of land encroached by it.
The penalty was levied just two days before the Congress MLAs landed in Bengaluru.
On July 27, Karnataka Law Minister T B Jayachandra had told the media that the state cabinet has decided to ask Eagleton resort to either pay the penalty or surrender the land to the government. Jayachandra had said that the government's decision was taken based on the directions of the Supreme Court.
With the Income Tax department being under the Union Government, this action is sure to evoke a reaction against the BJP government from the Congress here.