On poll eve, IT raids on mines minister's aides

Income Tax officials from Goa and Mumbai, who are camping in the state, raided the house of Prashanth Kekere, a close aide of Mines and Geology Minister and Congress candidate from Dharwad, Vinay Kulkarni.

Kekere, who is Kulkarni’s campaign manager, was picked up by a team of five I-T officials from a lunch home on Thursday noon and taken to various places, before reaching his house in Saptapur. The officials searched his house, questioned him till Friday noon and examined several documents. Kekere has been asked to appear before at the I-T office on Monday, sources said.

Speaking to reporters, Kekere said that the officials found nothing incriminating during the search. He alleged that the raid on him was at the behest of BJP leaders to restrain him from campaigning for Kulkarni.

Sources said the I-T officials also searched the houses of three aides of Kulkarni on Thursday night.

In Karwar

I-T officials searched the house of Mangaldas Kamat, a close aide of MLA and Congress candidate from Karwar, Satish Sail, and inspected various documents on Friday.

The team arrived at Kamat's residence at Aversa in Ankola taluk and searched his house for more than two hours. During his visit for the roadshow as part the Congress election campaign at Ankola recently, AICC president Rahul Gandhi had dined at hotel Kamat Plus, owned by Kamat.