BJP alleged that the seized cash was meant to be pumped into the coming Assembly elections in five states.
CM Siddaramaiah. (Twitter)
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday, 16 October, dismissed as “politically motivated and baseless” the Opposition BJP’s allegation that the cash seized by the Income-Tax Department in recent I-T raids in Bengaluru belonged to the Congress party.
On 13 October, the I-T Department recovered unaccounted cash of over ₹50 crore from several people, including ₹42 crore from a contractor in Bengaluru.
Following this, the Opposition BJP said that the money was linked to the Congress and was meant for use in the uppcoming Telangana Assembly elections.
On Sunday, 15 October, BJP alleged that the cash, including ₹42 crore seized from the contractor and his son, was linked to the Congress and that the Siddaramaiah government was using the state as an “ATM”.
Reacting to the allegations, Siddaramaiah told reporters, “It’s a political statement and baseless allegation. Are there Congress contractors and BJP contractors? I call them BJP contractors. Where is the evidence?”
To a query on BJP’s allegation that the seized cash was meant to be pumped into the coming elections in five states, Siddaramaiah said, “We have no connection with it (money). Those states which are going to polls should fight on their own.”
He added, “When we fought the elections, did we go to other states asking for money? It is the people who bless. Our state has no connection with (elections in) other states.”
When asked about CT Ravi’s allegation that there is a target of collecting ₹1,000 crore for the Congress in Karnataka for funding the party to fight the Assembly polls, Siddaramaiah said he would not react to the allegation by the BJP leader who “only speaks lies”.
“Can anyone ask Karnataka to collect ₹1,000 crore? Till now our high command has not asked us even for five paise,” he said.
On former chief minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy’s demand for a probe into the I-T raids, Siddarmaiah said, “Why should we investigate? It’s Income-Tax Department which should probe it. I-T had raided, and they should investigate. Why my government should do it? Where’s the allegation against the (state) government?”
There cannot be any investigation based on a politically motivated statement, the chief minister said.
Finance Minister of Telangana and BRS leader T Harish Rao had also alleged that the money was collected from builders, gold businesses, and contractors as “Telangana tax”. It was part of ₹1,500 crore meant to fuel the Congress’s campaign in Telangana, he said.
The recovered cash was kept in 23 cartons under a cot at the residence of a contractor’s relative and a former corporator at Atmananda Colony in RT Nagar.
Police sources told South First earlier that the flat belonged to former corporator Ashwathamma and her husband R Ambikapathy.
The latter is the president of the BBMP Contractors’ Association as well as the vice-president of the Karnataka Contractors’ Association.
Ambikapathy had earlier accused the previous BJP government of demanding a 40 percent commission for clearing bills. Ashwathamma is the elder sister of former Congress MLA R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy.
(With PTI inputs)
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