BENGALURU: There is no respite yet for Karnataka Energy Minister D K Shivakumar as officials of the Income Tax Department continued carrying out raids on properties of his close associate and KPCC Secretary Vijay Mulgund. The raids were conducted in Bengaluru, Chennai and New Delhi.
According to the I-T Department, 10 raids including searches and surveys were conducted on the properties of Mulgund in the operation that started on Wednesday morning. The raid comes a month after massive IT raids were carried out on residences and offices of Shivakumar and his relatives in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Delhi.
Mulgund had hogged the limelight during Gujarat Congress MLAs’ stay at a resort in Bengaluru as he actively assisted Shivakumar in taking care of the MLAs to foil BJP’s alleged attempts to ‘poach’ the MLAs ahead of the Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat.
Like Shivakumar, Mulgund was also a strong loyalist of former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who recently deserted Congress to join BJP. Mulgund was appointed Chairman of Karnataka State Handloom Development Corporation during Krishna’s tenure as the chief minister.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah termed the raids on Mulgund’s residence as part of vendetta politics of BJP government at the Centre. “I have no objection for I-T officials conducting raids. But this selective targeting of only Congress leaders lends further credence to the feeling that Congress leaders are being targeted misusing I-T department,” he said. The raids continued till late in the evening.