Bengaluru: For the second day running, officials of the Income Tax department on Thursday searched the premises of some 60 homes and offices of the kin, close aides and business associates of Karnataka Energy Minister D. K. Shivakumar across the IT capital Bengaluru, as well as in several locations in the capital New Delhi.
However while no stashes of cash was found in Bengaluru, IT sleuths said they had seized hundreds of documents related to the minister's business and other financial transactions that raised uncomfortable questions about his business enterprises.
In Bengaluru, besides, the minister's plush home in Sadashivanagar, IT officials continued to sift through documents and attempt to open lockers at his farmhouse at Kodihalli in Ramanagar, his close associate and MLC S. Ravi's house in Kanakapura, his sister's home in Padmanabhanagar and his astrologer Dwarakanath's house in R. T. Nagar, as well as his home in Doddahalahalli in Kanakapura and his father-in-law's house at Ittigegud in Mysuru,. Apart from this, the offices of a prominent real estate and jewellery firm, in which Mr. Shivakumar has investments, were also raided. Jewellery worth about Rs 4.4 crore was also recovered.
Finish fund-raiser, win a poll
To win a poll, choke the fund-raiser. That seems to be the clever strategy adopted by the BJP national leadership, which has tied up the Congress party's main fund-raiser and energy minister D.K. Shivakumar in knots, with a series of raids on his houses and properties across the nation including New Delhi and Bengaluru. It is a well known fact that Mr Shivakumar, whose worth runs into hundreds of crores, was the fundraiser for the Congress party in Assembly polls held in Kerala, Assam and Bihar.
