DHARWAD, KARWAR AND BIDAR: The Income Tax Department conducted raids at three places since Thursday afternoon sending shockwaves among Congress leaders and their supporters. While Prashant Kekare, the personal assistant of Minister Vinay Kulkarni, was picked up by the IT officials from Dharwad on Thursday afternoon, two raids were conducted on Friday — at the residence of MLA Ashok Kheny in Bidar and on Magaldas Kamat, a close aide of Congress MLA Satish Sail.
The Congress termed the raids ill-timed and intentional.
“The IT team did not find anything in my house. They picked me up from a hotel on Thursday afternoon and lodged me in an unknown hotel in the night. Early morning, they conducted checks at my residence,” Prashant Kekare, who lives in Kushi Nagar of Saptapur, said.In Uttara Kannada district, the IT sleuths registered their third raid in the last three weeks. An aide of Congress candidate and sitting MLA Satish Sail was raided on Friday early morning in Avarsa of Ankola taluk. A team of six IT officials raided the house of Congress leader and businessman Mangaldas Kamat.
He is one of the close associates of Karwar-Ankola constituency MLA and Congress candidate Satish Sail. He is a known businessman in Ankola and it is said that he was looking into Sail’s political financing.
According to sources, the IT officials, before searching Kamat’s house, they visited Sail’s house at Sadashivagad near Karwar and asked for some information. Within minutes, they went to Kamat’s house at Avarsa. When contacted, Sail’s associates denied any visit by IT officials. Local Congress leaders were not ready to comment.
This is third IT raid on Congress leaders in the district in the last two-three weeks.
In Bidar, Income Tax, Excise and Election officials of Bidar together raided the residence of Congress candidate Ashok Kheny on Friday. Bidar Deputy Commissioner Anirudh Shravan told TNIE that the joint raid was carried out based on an anonymous complaint that money was being distributed and liquor had been stored exceeding the limit.
Anirudh Shravan said the team did not notice any congregation or distribution of money. But it was found that liquor was stored in excess of permissible limits. An FIR is being readied against Kheny.
Sleuths of police department and elections raided the house of Congress candidate for Gulbarga-North Kaneeja Fatima Begum who is the wife of late Qamarul Islam on Friday night. They recovered a diary and `30,000 in cash.
Police have arrested Nurul Islam who is the son of the brother of Qamarul Islam and at present he is being questioned at Station Bazar Police Station of Kalaburagu.In Bengaluru, the EC officialsand the police on Friday conducted raids in two different places and seized cash of `33.98 lakh. The officials also detained two people including a PWD contractor.
Officials have conducted raids on MRK Tent House in Sarvajna Nagar Assembly constituency in Banasawadi police station limits and seized `18.98 lakh. Officials said that the Tent House belongs to one Radhakrishna. Police also seized a few voter identity cards from here.In a second incident, Jnanabharathi police have seized `15 lakh unaccounted cash in a car near a check post at Ullala Road.