Bengaluru: Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misusing the Income-Tax Department to threaten political leaders of the ruling JD-S and Congress in Karnataka, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Thursday said the I-T raids were nothing but "revenge politics by the BJP-led NDA government".
"The Income-Tax Department raids on some businessmen and our important political leaders in the state is revenge politics by the Modi government. I will not be cowed down," Kumaraswamy told reporters here.
Terming these raids as Modi's real and open surgical strikes, the Chief Minister alleged that the offer of a constitutional post to the I-T Director-General B.R. Balakrishnan has helped the Prime Minister in his revenge game.
PM @narendramodi's real surgical strike is out in the open through IT dept raids. The constitutional post offer for IT officer Balakrishna helped the PM in his revenge game. Highly deplorable to use govt machinery, corrupt officials to harrass opponents during election time.
— H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) March 28, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">PM @narendramodi's real surgical strike is out in the open through IT dept raids. The constitutional post offer for IT officer Balakrishna helped the PM in his revenge game. Highly deplorable to use govt machinery, corrupt officials to harrass opponents during election time.
— H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) March 28, 2019PM @narendramodi's real surgical strike is out in the open through IT dept raids. The constitutional post offer for IT officer Balakrishna helped the PM in his revenge game. Highly deplorable to use govt machinery, corrupt officials to harrass opponents during election time.
— H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) March 28, 2019
"Highly deplorable to use government machinery and corrupt officials to harass opponents during election time," tweeted Kumaraswamy.
In a pre-dawn swoop earlier today, Income Tax officials along with CRPF personnel carried out raids at the residences of Karnataka Minor Irrigation Minister C S Puttaraju and his nephew.
JD(S) leader Puttaraju claimed three teams of Income Tax officials and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel carried out raids at his Chinnakurli residence in Mandya and his nephew's house in Mysuru.
Early this morning, the houses and offices of several businessmen in Bengaluru were also raided at 15 locations across the city.
