Blaming the B.S. Yediyurappa government in the State for allowing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to search his residence, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D.K. Shivakumar on Monday said he has been targeted by Central agencies before elections.
“Now that there are bypolls, they have returned. Till the end of elections, these kind of inconveniences will be there. The Income Tax Department searched my premises ahead of the Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections in 2017; the Enforcement Directorate put me in jail before the bypolls in 2019; and now the CBI has come to search me before another bypolls,” he told party workers gathered outside his house, soon after the CBI completed its search. “We will have to reply to this in the polls. Go back to the booth level and work for the party.”
He said that when the CBI wrote to the State government seeking permission for a probe, the Advocate General had opined that the case may be handed over to the Anti-Corruption Bureau. “So far, no disproportionate assets case against any legislator has been handed over to the CBI. The Chief Minister could have given the case to the ACB. I do not know what was the pressure on Mr. Yediyurappa,” Mr. Shivakumar said.
Later, addressing presspersons, he said, “You [the CM] gave permission to the CBI. Tell me if there has been any inquiry, judicial commission established against me in the last 30 years of my political life, until the I-T raids, which are anyway politically motivated.”
He also said that he would not succumb to any pressure tactics or be silenced, and that he was capable of answering the investigating agencies. “I don’t blame the CBI officials. They have only done their duty, as instructed by their political masters. I will reply to every question they ask and will cooperate. Ultimately, there are the courts,” he said.
