In an early morning crackdown, Income-Tax officials raided the campaign office of Bangalore Central coalition candidate Rizwan Arshad and several businessmen associated with him, here on Thursday.

Calling the raids as an attempt to cripple his campaign, Arshad said the department has continued to target Congress and the JD(S) leaders and their followers.

The I-T officials searched residences and offices of businessmen Amanullah Khan, Kamal Pasha and Nayeez Khan in different parts of Bengaluru. Sources said 20 locations were searched by teams of officials and the raids are expected to continue on Friday. While Amanullah is into interior design and other businesses, Pasha is the owner of Golden Hatcheries and Nayiz is a real-estate agent. Sources said incriminating documents were found during the raid.

I-T-BJP nexus

Hours after the raid, Arshad blamed the BJP-Income Tax department nexus.

He said the department had searched several persons he wasn’t even acquainted with. “They have grilled these individuals asking whether they were my relatives and how they were associated with me,” he alleged, adding the businessmen were being harassed.

BJP is resorting to such tactics fearing imminent defeat in Bengaluru in the elections. He said the coalition candidates will not be intimidated by such tactics.

The I-T department has come under fire from the state government over a spate of raids, recently. Raids were carried out on March 28 in Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan and Shivamogga.