DK Shivakumar in I-T trouble once again: Karnataka minister, brother summoned

He has been summoned over six times, but relief is still not in sight for DK Shivakumar, especially with the Karnataka assembly polls less than a year away.

The Karnataka Energy Minister was served yet another notice by the Income Tax Department on Saturday, asking him to appear for questioning. His brother MP DK Suresh has also been summoned, reports said. 

Daijiworld reported that the minister has said that he would appear before the concerned officials with his mother, wife, children, and brother on Monday.

This is the seventh time that the minister has been asked by I-T officials to appear for questioning after the three days of continuous raids at properties he owns in Bengaluru and other parts of the country in August. Since then, his properties have been raided multiple times by I-T officials. 

From the first day, DK Shivakumar has maintained that he is innocent. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had earlier called the raids 'politically motivated' by rival Bharatiya Janata Party. 

I-T officials had also earlier raided the Eagleton Resort in Bidadi, where Gujarat Congress MLAs were housed after rumours of a rebellion among the ranks, ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections. 

DK Shivakumar was tasked with keeping the Gujarat MLAs, which finally led to Gujarat leader Ahmed Patel winning a Rajya Sabha seat. Congress leaders in the state said that he was targeted for this reason.

Fifty-five-year-old Shivakumar, who currently holds the portfolio of Energy, has held the Urban Development and Home portfolios during previous Congress governments.

Incidentally, ahead of the 2013 assembly polls, he declared a wealth of Rs 251 crore in his election affidavit, becoming the second richest minister in the country at that time, said a TOI report.

Before this, he has allegedly been involved in illegal granite mining. He, along with his family, was issued notices by the Karnataka High Court in 2015.

He was also a party to land grabbing cases along with his brother DK Suresh in the Shantinagar Housing Cooperative Society case, but was later gave a clean chit by his cabinet colleague HS Mahadev Prasad.