Cong slams BJP, calls I-T raids at K'taka minister's house political witch-hunt

New Delhi: The Congress Party on Wednesday slammed the BJP government at the Centre over the Income Tax raids at multiple properties related to Karnataka Power Minister DK Shivakumar, who was overseeing the stay of 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat at a resort near Bengaluru.

Congress leader Ahmed Patel said, in a tweet, that the “BJP is on an unprecedented witch-hunt just to win one Rajya Sabha seat”. “After using the state machinery and every other agency, these I-T raids show their utter desperation & frustration,” he added.

The Congress hit out at the government in Parliament too, with the Rajya Sabha witnessing protests by the Opposition against the "witch-hunt by the government".

Congress leader Anand Sharma said it is now becoming a trend to blatantly misuse powers of the state. "The minister and his brother, an elected representative coordinating in stay of Gujarat MLAs that is why it is a targeted timing," he added.

Attacking the BJP, Another leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "Conduct raids on residences of those people from your party (BJP) who are offering Rs 15 crore."

The Rajya Sabha was also rocked by opposition protests over an Election Commission notification that provides the MLAs the 'None of the Above' (NOTA) option in the voting for the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat on August 8.

Angry members of the Congress and other Opposition parties forced adjournments of the proceedings as they questioned the NOTA provision for these elections.

Meanwhile, in Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley clarified that the Income Tax raids had nothing to do with Gujarat polls. “This raid should not be linked with any Gujarat poll, this is on a purely economic offence,” Jaitley said in Lok Sabha.

The Income Tax officials said they seized Rs 5 crore cash from the Delhi residence of Shivakumar, who has been taken to his house in Bengaluru from the resort by the I-T team.

Officials privy to the early morning raids said I-T sleuths reached the Eagleton resort near here to question the minister, who was staying at the resort for the night.

Shivakumar, was in charge of the 44 MLAs lodged there, to keep the flock together for preventing the BJP from allegedly "poaching" on them, was at the resort when the search took place, I-T officials said.

As the raids on the resort triggered angry reactions from the Congress, the I-T department said the resort is not being raided.

Read: Raids at K'taka minister's house not linked to 44 Cong MLAs from Gujarat: I-T dept

They said only the minister's room in the resort was "searched" and not of the MLAs from Gujarat.

"The search team has no concern with the MLAs and there has been no contact with MLAs and the search team," the department said in a statement.

I-T officials said a total of 39 premises of the minister and his family are being raised by a team of about 120 Income Tax Department officials with the aid of central paramilitary forces. The raids are taking place in Delhi and Karnataka.

The department is also investigating charges of alleged role of money power and huge transfer of illegal funds for these polls.