DKS: I won’t be cowed into submission by BJP

In a dramatic turn of events, Congress strongman D.K. Shivakumar and his brother, D.K. Suresh, MP, Bengaluru Rural, hurriedly convened a press conference early on Thursday morning and alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had obtained search warrants against them and 11 of their associates.

In an open dare, Mr. Shivakumar said the BJP is mistaken if they think they can threaten them [the brothers] with false cases to woo them. “I am not ready to become anybody’s puppet,” he said.

Hours later, the CBI did indeed begin raids on five premises, including those linked to Mr. Shivakumar. However, no searches were conducted on Mr. Shivakumar or his brother. CBI sources clarified that they were no search warrants against the brothers. But, it was later revealed that the searches were related to a ₹10 lakh bank fraud case during the post-demonetisation period.

The FIR registered on April 7, 2017, named B. Prakash, chief manager, Corporation Bank, Ramanagaram, alleging that he had exchanged ₹10 lakh comprising of new ₹500 and ₹2,000 currency notes for demonetised notes without proper documentation as prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India for the exchange, on November 14, 2016, six days after demonetisation was announced (November 8). The FIR states he “produced 250 fabricated requisition slips for new currency notes to cover up his illegal act”.

CBI sources said a further probe into the case to learn who the beneficiaries of the ₹10 lakh were, revealed the role of one Padmanabhaiah, personal assistant to Mr. Suresh, and hence raids were taken up against them.

Raids were conducted at the Bengaluru residence of Mr. Padmanabhaiah, Kanakapura taluk office, residences of two officials — Shivananda, deputy tahsildar and election cell in-charge, and clerk in the same section, Nanjappa — in Kanakapura, and the office of the district in charge Minister, Ramanagaram district. Mr. Shivakumar was the district in charge Minister during the period of the said FIR, and he is the MLA from Kanakapura.

The CBI, in a formal statement, said Mr. Shivananda was the custodian of holograms for EPIC cards and also the login id of the tahsildar, and misused them to create duplicate copies of 120 voters of the area, despite no requisition from them. These were submitted to Mr. Prakash of the Corporation Bank. This was done on November 10 and 11 of 2016. Mr. Prakash used these copies of voter ID cards to fabricate requisition slips for new currency notes.

CEO’s confirmation

The CBI said the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Bengaluru, wrote to the bureau on May 29 confirming that the alleged voter ID cards submitted for the exchange of demonetised currency were generated from the election cell, Kanakapura tahsildar office. The CBI said this is what led to the raids on Thursday. Till late on Thursday night, the raids were yet to be completed and the three persons were still being questioned by the CBI. CBI said during the raids they had recovered incriminating material related to the generation of duplicate copies of voter ID cards, the hologram sticker register and the image of the hard disk suspected to be used for the operation has also been seized. The raids also led to a political furore, with several Congress leaders condemning them as “politically motivated”. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the BJP was targeting Congress leaders using the CBI and other Central agencies. But the law will lose its sting when used to deliberately target political rivals, he said.