Income Tax Department personnel from Bengaluru on Tuesday launched a search operation at several places on properties linked to people associated with the Janata Dal (Secular).
In Mandya, searches were on at the properties of S.P. Swamy Somanahalli near Maddur and Thimmegowda at Pandavapura. According to sources in the JD(S), the searches began in the early hours at various locations, including a saw-mill, fertilizer godown/shop and residences of the leaders.
Both the leaders are prominent in the region and are actively invloved in the election campaign of Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the party's Mandya candidate and the son of Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
The officials reached the house of Deve Gowda (Papanni), cousin of State Minister H.D. Revanna, at Haradanahalli in Holenarsipur on Tuesday morning.
Similarly, in Hassan, a house belonging to Karle Indresh, a JD(S) supporter and director of HDCC Bank (Hassan Dist. Co-op. Central Bank Ltd.) was searched.
Houses of former MLC Patel Shivaram and former HDCC bank chairman H. Sathish were also searched.
Prajwal Revanna, son of Mr. Revanna is the party's candidate from Hassan.
I-T Department statement
In a statement, the Income Tax Department said they were carrying out searches at over 10 premises in Bengaluru, Mandya and Hassan. However, the department has remained silent on the political links of the persons being searched.
"The searches being conducted today are based on credible intelligence that certain businessmen have earned income not disclosed to tax and are in possession of undisclosed assets. The taxpayers covered in today's search operations are engaged in the business of real estate, quarrying and stone crushing, executing government contracts, operating petrol bunks, a sawmill and managing cooperative banks. These are sectors which are prone to generation of black money," the statement said.
