Bengaluru: In an IT raid that is aimed at turning the spotlight on yet another of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s associates, the sleuths of the Income Tax department raided and conducted search and seizure operations at five places belonging to Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Chairman, Lakshman, on Tuesday.
Mr. Lakshman, who was appointed by the Congress government as the chief of the KSPCB, is said to be a very close associate of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Energy Minister D. K. Shivakumar. An engineer turned builder, Lakshman was appointed the head of the KSPCB in December 2015.
His residence in Basaveshwaranagar, private office at Sadashivanagar, other properties in Vijayanagar and other places were raided simultaneously by the IT officials. The search operations that began around 7 am on Tuesday, continued till late evening. During the raids, the IT sleuths did not let Mr. Lakshman and his family members leave the house. It is learnt that he was questioned for several hours by the officials.
IT officials coming out of Mr. Lakshman’s residence were carrying suitcase that purportedly had documents that they had seized, and that were subsequently taken to the IT office.
In the backdrop of the raids D. K. Shivakumar's residence in August and Mr. Lakshman's close association with the minister, it was said that the raids were in connection with the case pertaining to the minister. However, the IT officials neither confirmed nor denied such reports. Further, it is not yet known whether this was a fresh raid, as there was an IT raid on Mr. Lakshman some years ago.
Mr. Lakshman, who hails from Kanakapura, is a developer and builder by profession. Some of his family members are in the real estate business. It is also said that the raids are purely based on the intelligence gathered by the IT sleuths about the family's business and alleged tax evasions.
