ED raids against Congress MLAs: Party cries political vendetta, CM says it is lawful investigation

BENGALURU: The early morning raids by the Enforcement Directorate on the homes of Congress MLA and former minister Zameer Ahmad Khan and former MLA R Roshan Baig in the I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam has resulted in a war of words between the opposition Congress and ruling BJP.
No sooner were the raids conducted, opposition leader Siddaramaiah jumped to defend his confidante Khan by claiming it to be nothing but political vendetta.
“The ED raids on our legislator Zameer Ahmad Khan is nothing political vendetta. The BJP, which is in the centre, is trying to scare the opposition parties by misusing its authority and conducting IT and ED raids. It is a deplorable act,” he said in a statement.
Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar went a step further and said the morning raids on Khan and Baig was nothing but targeting a “section” of the society.
When asked whether he was hinting at targeting of the Muslim community, he said: “You can take it however you want. But the raids were intended to send out a message to them.”
Shivakumar said the harassment meted out to the opposition was happening across the country.
“When notice was issued by the ED to our MLA in 2019, he responded to it and gave his statement. How it took so long for the investigating authorities to raid him and supposedly seize evidence?” questioned Shivakumar.
The Congress also questioned as to why there was a selected targeting of leaders when others like Vijayendra have also got complaints lodged against them.
Responding to these allegations, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai dismissed the selected targeting accusations and said that the Congress is trying to politicise the issue.
“Just because someone files a complaint against a person, that does not warrant raids. The central investigating agencies have got their own evidence gathering measures as part of its investigation. The Congress has become an expert in decoding these raids and alleging bias,” said a sarcastic Bommai.