BENGALURU: Following the ‘diarygate’ controversy, the Income-Tax (I-T) Department on Monday clarified that there was no leak of evidence material it seized during raids.
It is alleged that I-T officials, during a raid on the house of Congress MLC K Govinda Raj, had seized a diary detailing payments allegedly made by party leaders to the High Command.
The issue had rocked the state, resulting in adjournment of both the Assembly and the Council.
B K Balakrishnan,I-T Director General (Investigation), Karnataka and Goa, said, “We have not leaked any evidence collected during any of our raids.”
However, he confirmed that there was a raid on MLC Govinda Raj’s house, but did not reveal the details of the seizure.
Chief Commissioner (tax detection at source) Biswarup Jha said I-T employees were forbidden from disclosing details of items seized during raids as per Section 138 of the I-T Act “unless required for discharging of duty” or if it is in “public interest”.
He also said there were no leaks from the department. The only person empowered to release documents of a case is the Principal Chief Commissioner, he added.
Balakrishnan agreed that a complaint has been filed with the Indiranagar police. “We have provided a detailed response to the questions raised by the police,” he said. He added that Govinda Raj had also written to him regarding the case and a detailed response has also been provided to him.
But he refused to respond to the allegations made by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that only Congress leaders were being targeted by the I-T Department.