According to sources in the early hours of Thursday, Income Tax officials conducted a search and seizure operation at the homes of Minor Irrigation Minister CS Puttaraju and his relatives. Meanwhile the operations were carried out just hours after Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy announced that over 300 I-T officials along with CRPF jawans were en route to Mandya to conduct raids on JD(S) leaders.
Reportedly I-T sleuths who came in several vehicles during entered CS Puttaraju’s ancestral home at his home town Chinakurali in Mandya’s Pandavapura. Furthermore they also conducted search and seizure operations at the home of Puttaraju’s nephew Ashok located in Mysuru city’s Vijayanagar area. Ashok is a contractor for national and state highway works. Meanwhile Income Tax sources say that Puttaraju’s close aide Ramesh, another class 1 contractor, may also face search operations due to his close proximity with the minister.
Moreover Income Tax department sources said that the raids were conducted based on concrete information that huge amounts of cash were being kept at the homes of Puttaraju and his supporters. Apparently Puttaraju said that the raids were political and targeting JD(S) leaders. He also blamed independent candidate from Mandya LS seat, Sumalatha Ambareesh. He said “The BJP believes that the raids will help the candidate they are supporting. If the BJP believes this, then they are just dreaming”.
