Hubballi: With barely four days to go for Assembly polls, income-tax officials in a midnight raid on Monday descended on a resort owned by Vijayanagar MLA Anand Singh, who joined the Congress recently, in Badami constituency, where a high voltage contest is on between chief minister Siddaramaiah and BJP leader B. Sriramulu.
Also raided was the Hotel Mayura Chalukya belonging to the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation. Senior Congress leader C.M. Ibrahim and minister R.B. Timmapur, who were staying at Mr Singh’s Krishna Heritage Resort when the raids were carried out, moved out of their rooms, 304 and 305 at 2 am. Both leaders have been in the town for the last two weeks to campaign for the Chief Minister. KPCC general secretary, Parasmal Jain, who is also election in-charge of Bagalkot district, was staying at the Mayura Chalukya hotel when it was raided.
A team of around 10 income tax officials, which carried out a search operation till early morning at the Krishna Heritage resort , reportedly recovered Rs 11 lakh in cash from it and Rs 2.80 lakh in cash from the Mayura Chalukya hotel ,where it seized several documents as well.
Furious at the raids, Congress leaders accused the BJP of masterminding them to target the chief minister and other Congress leaders campaigning in the town. Asserting that the Congress would not be intimidated by the raids, they claimed they were a tactic by the BJP to distract people from the real issues at hand. “The raids are are a conspiracy by the BJP to prevent Congress leaders from campaigning in Badami,” said Siddaramaiah’s close aide Dr Devaraj Patil .
