On the early morning of the 28th of March, Income Tax (IT) officials and members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) conducted raids at the residence of C.S. Puttaraju, the Karnataka Minor Irrigation Minister.
Apart from Puttaraju’s residence, the officials also raided his nephew’s residence. While one part of the team carried out the raids at the minister’s residence in Chinnakurli, another team carried out the raid at his nephew’s residence in Mysuru.
“Three teams of IT officials and CRPF soldiers comprising eight soldiers carried out raids at my Chinnakurli residence in Mandya and my nephew’s residence in Mysuru,” Puttaraju said in a statement regarding the raids.
The raids took place shortly after the Karnataka Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, voiced his fear about the possibility of these raids happening at the residences of the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Dal Secular [JD(S)] ministers.
According to the Chief Minister, the raids were being carried out by the CRPF jawans instead of the Karnataka police and were done early in the morning in order to maintain secrecy about the project. The Chief Minister also said, the jawans were brought from all parts of India to conduct the raids.
“I’m not deterred by the raids, which are election related. I would like to know which BJP leader’s house in Karnataka has been raided,” Puttaraju said while talking about the raids.
With the raids being conducted on the pretext of the upcoming elections, the pressure on both the parties increased drastically. The Lok Sabha elections are going to be conducted in 7 phases and are being held from the 11th of April to the 19th of May.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC) are the major contesting parties in the elections and with the competition being neck to neck, the results are going to be interesting.
The results of the Lok Sabha elections are going to be declared on the 23rd of May.
Stay tuned to the page for more updates.
