BENGALURU: The ruling Congress party has accused the Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Karnataka & Goa, B.R. Balakrishnan for targeting the party, its senior leader and Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar in allegedly false income tax cases. Earlier this week, the working president of KPCC - Dinesh Gundurao along with the Planning, Science & Technology Minister M.R. Seetharam, Transport Minister H.M. Revanna and dozens of Congress district presidents and party workers had submitted a representation, which was addressed to the Chief Election Commission requesting him to transfer the DGIT from Karnataka.
The letter was handed over to the Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar and according to sources it was sent to the CEC the same day. On Thursday Congress party workers held a raucous protest in front of the Income Tax office on Queen's Road demanding the immediate transfer of Balakrishnan. "They gave us a representation demanding the officer's transfer and the same has been sent to the Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)," said Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Karnataka & Goa, Rajnish Kumar.
Countering the allegations that the Income Tax officers are targeting the Congress leaders in Karnataka, Kumar said that the Department is a politically neutral and professional Department and the allegations against its officers were baseless.
"The surveys, search and seizure operations conducted by the I-T Department are subject to the scrutiny of the court. An assessee has the right to appeal in court against the Department. Not a single writ petition has been filed in the Karnataka High Court challenging the I-T Department's actions. This in itself speaks about the nature of our work," said the senior most Income Tax officer in the region.
On August 2, 2017 the I-T officers had conducted search and seizure operations on the premises of DKS and his family members and the resort, where he had hosted 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat on the eve of the Rajya Sabha elections.
In November last year Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had accused the I-T Department of browbeating DKS into joining the BJP by raiding him and his relatives for allegedly concealing taxable income.
