Bengaluru: The Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Karnataka and Goa, B.R. Balakrishna on Thursday strongly objected to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's accusations that the I-T officials had asked Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar to join the BJP after raiding his and his family's premises in August this year for alleged undisclosed income.
Mr. Balakrishna said that certain political leaders have made allegations that searches by the Income Tax department are politically motivated.
"In particular the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka is reported to have stated that a team of Income Tax officials who had raided the home of a Karnataka Minister, openly asked him to join the BJP. We strongly deny and refute these allegations. The Income tax department is a professional and politically neutral department. The searches carried out have, without exception, resulted in admission and detection of previously undisclosed income running into hundreds of crores of rupees and seizure of large amounts of cash and jewellery," he said in a press statement.
The DGIT further stated that the statements made by the Chief Minister was "factually baseless. No Income Tax officer or official has at any point of time made any such statement to the Hon’ble minister or to anyone else," he further added.
When speaking in Hubballi on Thursday, CM Siddaramaiah repeated the charge he had made on Wednesday, that IT officials had asked Energy minister D.K.Shivakumar to quit the Congress and join the BJP.
