TUMAKURU, HASSAN, BENGALURU: Was it officials from the Income Tax department? Was it sleuths from the Election Commission? Who raided a temple dedicated to JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda’s family deity in Hassan? Who were the two “officials” who drove up in a Maruti Swift and searched the temple and residence of the temple high priest? Neither the I-T department, nor the local police nor intelligence officials seem to have a clue.
The alleged “raid” by the two men in Haradanahalli village of Hassan, the Gowda heartland, left the first family disturbed on Friday. But as the day passed, it appeared to be a hoax. “Two officials came in a Maruti Swift and asked me where the cash was, and that they had information about a huge cache of cash kept in cartons in the house.
Later, they searched every corner of the house for nearly 40 minutes, and returned empty-handed,” said Prakash Bhat, priest of the Eshwara temple. Speculation that it was a Income Tax raid soon died out, after the department clarified that it had conducted no such raids. “The attention of the Income Tax department in Karnataka-Goa has been drawn to reports in social media that IT officials have checked the house of the family priest and temple of a prominent political leader. No such search/ checking/verification of any sort has been done by the I-T department in Karnataka. It is unfortunate that media persons connected to reputed media houses are spreading such unfounded stories without any attempt at verification,” said a hurried release from the I-T department on Friday.
That, however, did not stop JD(S) and Congress leaders from accusing the BJP of hurting Hindu sentiments. “Since they have not even spared the sanctum sanctorum of our family deity, Lord Eshwara, during the raid, the deity will storm the Narendra Modi-led BJP and decimate it. I-T officials even raided the priest’s house. HD Deve Gowda’s family has the grace of the deity, which will destroy the BJP across the country,” Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy thundered, while campaigning for Bangalore Rural candidate DK Suresh in Kunigal.
While the family of the priest claimed that the men could have been from the Election Commission, the local police denied any such raids. “Usually, officials inform local police about such raids as we provide security. We received no such information on I-T raids in any part of the district,” said Chetan Singh Rathore, Superintendent of Police, Hassan.
IT raid on Asnotikar’s close aide
KARWAR: Income Tax sleuths from Hubballi on Friday conducted a raid on the house and business outlet of a Sirsi businessman, who is a close associate of Uttara Kannada JD(S) candidate Anand Asnotikar. Five IT officials came in a car from Hubballi to Sirsi and conducted raid on the house of Shakeel Shaik near Horticulture Department office and his automobile outlet in the market area. It is alleged that Shaik, who is the financier of Asnotikar for the election, had distributed money to party workers. Acting on a complaint, the IT officials raided both the places simultaneously and recovered important documents and bank details.