Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has also reiterated the statements in the Rajya Sabha, clarifying that no searches ‘as such’ took place in the resort or on the Congress MLAs. Only the Karnataka minister was searched.
The Income tax department sources, however, have clarified that the searches were only conducted on the Karnataka minister and that they had “no concern” with the Congress MLAs.
The Congress will be taking up the issue of the Income tax searches in the Parliament today, nevertheless.
The Income Tax Department conducted searches at multiple locations in Karnataka and Delhi related to Karnataka Energy minister D K Shivakumar, who is hosting 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat at a resort near here, in connection with a tax evasion probe case.
“The resort is not being raided,” the officials said.
However, Congress has condemned the searches, calling them a “witch hunt” by the BJP ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat.
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel called the raids an “unprecedented witch hunt” by the BJP “just to win 1 Rajya Sabha seat.”
After using state machinery and every other agency, these I-T raids show their utter desperation & frustration,’ says Patel.
Congress spokes person R.S. Surjewala spoke on similar lines, accusing the BJP of using “every dirty and ugly trick to run a conspiracy to win Rajya Sabha seat in Gujarat.”
Congress had brought its 44 legislators at the resort on Saturday, to fend off “poaching” attempts by the BJP ahead of the August 8 Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat.
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 joining the BJP on Friday.
