Day after CM’s stay, I-T raid on Badami resort nets Rs 20 lakh

HUBBALLI/BENGALURU: A day after chief minister Siddaramaiah’s stay at a resort on the outskirts of Badami, income tax sleuths conducted a raid on the resort on Monday night. The search operation lasted more than seven hours.

Siddaramaiah accused Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah of using the I-T department to target him and Congress. “Is it because of elections in Karnataka? It is at the instance of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah (that) they are doing it. They are misusing the IT department,” he said. “Maybe it is their aim to scare me (but it will not work).”

The Krishna Heritage Resort official told, they reportedly raided around 11.30pm on Monday and searched all rooms, including the one in which the CM stayed on Sunday.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Party (KPCC) working president SR Patil, MLC CM Ibrahim and other senior leaders were at the resort during the raid. The officials also questioned Ibrahim.

Ibrahim said: “I was not staying at Krishna Heritage, but had gone there to have resort is linked to mining baron and former BJP MLA Anand Singh, who joined Congress recently to contest from Vijayanagara constituency in Ballari district.

It is said that I-T officials were armed with a notice to question KPCC general secretary Parasmal Jain, Congress in-charge of Bagalkot. Jain was staying at Mayur Chalukya hotel.

"When officials did not find Parasmal in the hotel with Patil, IT officials carried out a search, and I was asked to go out after two hours. They did not find anything in the resort.’’ Later, they carried out a search at Mayur Chalukya for nearly four hours.

I-T sources said Rs 20 lakh was seized from the resort, which poll expenditure monitoring officials said was stashed in violation of the poll code of conduct.

Parasmal, while addressing media on Tuesday, said the officials had seized Rs 5 lakh kept for daily expenses. “BJP is trying to instil a sense of fear among Congress leaders by conducting I-T raids, but this will not stop Siddaramaiah from winning Badami,” he said.