The Income Tax raids on Tuesday have seemingly taken a political hue with  the JD (S) supremo H D Deve Gowda vowing to “expose those behind the raids.”
Apparently embarrassed with IT department’s raids on land developers and officials who are reportedly close to his son — Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Mr Deve Gowda on Wednesday said, “I know who is behind this...Wait for four days and see what will happen,” he warned without directly referring to the raids in Bangalore.
He was speaking to media persons on the sidelines of induction of former cricketer Dodda Ganesh into the party.
“Let anybody make any allegation against Kumaraswamy...But they (rivals) should know that I can also speak much about corruption,” he warned.
Mr Kumaraswamy, in a press conference on Wednesday, expressed his serious displeasure over “unnecessarily linking him” to the realtors whose premises were raided by the IT authorities on Tuesday.
Referring to media reports that one of the realtors is his close confidant and that has become a cause of concern for him, the chief minister reiterated that Gottigere Manjunath is a JD(S) party worker. “How has that become a basis for the media to link money found in his house to me?” he questioned.
“No such allegations were made when the IT officials raided former union minister Sukh Ram’s house. I have no objection in having my name linked to the realtor if the media can prove it or if the IT officials have stated so anywhere,” said Mr Kumaraswamy.
“Media should not indulge in misleading the people without any basis. The Congress, in the present scenario, is waiting for an opportunity. Would they have kept quite in such a circumstance?” he added.
Some of the Congress leaders however, chose to dismiss allegations of political motives behind the raids. “ I am not aware, whether these realtors are close to the power circles. The IT Department is only acting in the interest of the country and its economy,” said Ugrappa, Congress MLC.
A senior Congress leader reacted to the Chief Minister’s reported remark on Tuesday — that Congress leaders should know better on who the realtors are close to — by saying that the government has initiated acquisition of around 70,000 acres of land for creating Special Economic Zones. That itself shows who is close to whom.