Income-Tax Department rejects CM’s charge of coercing DK Shivakumar
BENGALURU: A day after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the Income-Tax Department officers of trying to browbeat Energy Minister DK Shivakumar into joining the BJP, the central agency has hit back at the CM terming his statement as “factually baseless”.
On Wednesday, while addressing the Congress rally against demonetisation, Siddaramaiah had stated that during the raids conducted on Shivakumar’s residence, the I-T officials had asked the minister to join BJP. Several other Congress leaders too have accused the central agency of working on behalf of the BJP government at the Centre.
A press statement issued by Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Karnataka and Goa region stated, “Our attention has been drawn to the fact that certain political leaders have made allegations that searches by the Income Tax department are politically motivated. In particular the Chief Minister of Karnataka is reported to have stated that in the case of a Karnataka Minister who was searched, income tax officials who were part of the team openly asked him to join the BJP”.
The statement said, “We strongly deny and refute these allegations. The income tax department is a professional and politically neutral department. The searches carried out have, without exception, resulted in admission and detection of previously undisclosed income running into hundreds of crores of rupees and seizure of large amounts of cash and jewellery.”
CM accuses BJP of trying to exert pressure on DKS
A day after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the Income-Tax Department officers of trying to browbeat Energy Minister DK Shivakumar into joining the BJP, the central agency has hit back at the CM terming his statement as “factually baseless”. A press statement issued by Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Karnataka and Goa region stated, “The statement made by the Chief Minister is factually baseless and is strongly denied. No Income Tax officer or official has at any point of time made any such statement to the minister or to anyone else.”
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Hubballi on Thursday, the Chief Minister reiterated his charge and accused the BJP of trying to exert pressure on Shivakumar to join the party through I-T raids.
On August 2, Shivakumar’s house and his offices was raided and a large amount of documents were seized. Till date, the minister and even his family members have been appearing before I-T officials for questioning. Congress leaders had termed the raids as politically motivated and questioned the timing. The raids happened after Shivakumar hosted Congress MLAs from Gujarat in a luxury resort in Bengaluru during the high-profile Rajya Sabha elections.