The CBI on Monday searched multiple premises owned by or linked to Karnataka Congress president D.K. Shivakumar in Karnataka, Delhi and Maharashtra in connection with a disproportionate assets case.
The raids, which continued for 12 hours from 6am, triggered protests by the Congress and allegations of witch-hunt. After the searches ended, Shivakumar, the Congress’s chief trouble-shooter in Karnataka who has faced raids by multiple central agencies, urged supporters gathered outside his home to give a befitting reply in impending bypolls.
Raids were conducted at Shivakumar’s Bangalore home and 14 other properties — nine in Karnataka, four in Delhi and one in Mumbai.
The premises searched included the Delhi apartment of Shivakumar’s younger brother and Lok Sabha member D.K. Suresh and their family home in Ramanagara, near Bangalore, where the leaders’ mother, Gowramma, lives.
The CBI, believed to be acting on inputs provided by the Enforcement Directorate in the money-laundering case, had on Sunday procured a warrant from the agency’s special court in Bangalore to search the premises, including Shivakumar’s home in Sadashivanagar.
Some 60 CBI officers were part of the operation. After coming to power in the state last year by toppling the JDS-Congress government, the BJP dispensation had ordered an investigation into allegations that Shivakumar owned assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
He had spent a month in Tihar jail during September-October 2019 in connection with the money-laundering case. The income tax department had claimed it had unearthed “unaccounted money” to the tune of Rs 11 crore during raids on the leader’s properties in 2017.
Shivakumar was neither allowed to leave his home nor consult anyone after the CBI sleuths knocked on his door.
After the raids, Shivakumar told a large crowd outside his home: “Let God do good to those who are trying to harm me and my family. But let me assure you all that neither me nor my family has done anything to bring a bad name to our party.”
He urged his supporters to respond appropriately in the bypolls. Five days ago, the Election Commission had announced that bypolls to the Sira and RR Nagar Assembly constituencies would be held on November 3. Congress MLAs who defected last year to help the BJP form the government represent the two seats.
State Congress legal cell chief A.S. Ponnanna said the CBI officers refused to furnish any information when Shivakumar asked them. “We have no information about the reason for this action,” Ponnanna said.
“The high court had asked them not to precipitate matters when we objected to the state government’s permission (to prosecute Shivakumar). What is the meaning of saying ‘do not take coercive action’?” he asked.
In an interim order on Shivakumar’s plea, Karnataka High Court had on September 28 said “there shall be no coercive action against the petitioner”.
After the raid on Shivakumar’s family home in Ramanagara, his mother Gowramma told reporters that “neither did they ask me anything, nor did I ask them anything”.
The Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa of “witch-hunt” to rattle the Opposition party ahead of the bypolls.
