As the I-T raids continued on Friday on the properties and close aides of Karnataka Power Minister DK Shivakumar in Bengaluru and other places, his brother and Member of Parliament DK Suresh has said that the cash recovered by the I-T department does not belong to their family and they were cooperating with the I-T department to full extent. He told the media in Bengaluru that it was the conspiracy and politically motivated raids. He also said that his party colleagues had extended their support to the family since theirs was a case of “political vendetta”.
Alleging political vendetta, Suresh said, “Our party and all senior leaders are extending support. We have received messages from Congress president and vice-president lending support and promising they will stand by our side irrespective of the consequences. They have told us to fight it out, as this is nothing but political vendetta.”
Suresh said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah backed them fully and has been in touch with them. However their mother Gowramma blamed Siddaramaiah for the entire episode which created flutters in the political circles. She told the visiting media that at Kanakapura the house she is living in was also raided by the IT sleuths. “Siddaramaiah has always been sharpening the knife against my son. He could be behind the I-T raids,” Gowramma said.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah continued to blame the Centre and said the raids conducted were politically motivated. Raking up the issue of I-T sleuths using CRPF during the searches, Siddaramaiah slammed the BJP for calling it a fight against corruption, saying most of its own leaders were facing graft charges.
“There are corruption charges against so many BJP leaders in Karnataka. Is Yeddyurappa (Karnataka party chief) not facing corruption chargesIJ” he said.
“This is a politically motivated raid; the timing also clearly shows that it is politically motivated,” Siddaramaiah told reporters in Bengaluru.
He said, “I’m not against the raid or search on any house, but the time that they have selected and the intention of the Central Government and the I-T department.”
Asked whether he feels that Shivakumar will come out clean, the Chief Minister on Friday said, “We do not know what has happened, what they have found during the searches. But according to me, it is politically motivated.” “He is a Minister. Taking reserve police to his house and other places are not fair,” he said.
Asked about Union Minister Ananth Kumar’s statement that raids were conducted to crack down on corruption, he said, “There are corruption charges against Ananth Kumar himself.”
Replying to another question about Shivakumar’s mother accusing him (Siddaramaiah) of conspiring against their sons, Siddaramaiah said that “I have not done anything wrong to her sons and will meet her soon and convince her.” Meanwhile, Dr Ramana Rao checked the health of Shivakumar at his residence in Sadashivnagar where the IT officials are continuing the raid for the third day and verifying the documents .
Meanwhile the Congress workers continued to agitate in several parts of Karnataka for the third day in protest against IT raid on properties and offices of Minister D K Shivakumar.
Several Vokkaliga organisations staged a candlelight protest last night against the raids. The protesters who gathered near the Gandhi bust in front of law Court premises, here, shouted slogans opposing the raid.
Forty-four Congress members of the Gujarat Assembly currently in a Resort in the city will be returning to Ahmedabad on August 7 a day before the Rajya Sabha elections. D K Suresh, MP from Karnataka, who has been overseeing them at the Resort here denied reports that some of the legislators had already left for Ahmedabad and said that they were enjoying their stay here.
One of the MlAs Gayasuddin Sheikh said all the legislators were keeping good health. He blamed the BJP for the current situation and expressed regret that they had to be away from their native place especially when it was reeling under floods.
Asked about reports that the legislators had played a cricket match with their Karnataka counterparts, Sheikh retorted “Now we are playing a game with the BJP. let us win this match first, then we will think of other matches’’.
Already six of the 57 Congress MlAs in Gujarat, from where senior party leader Ahmed Patel is contesting for the Rajya Sabha, have resigned from the party in the last few days with three of them joining the BJP.