Karnataka: I-T Department Teams Raid 50 Locations Including Yediyurappa's Confidante

As many as 300 officers raided the houses and offices of industrialists, contractors, and chartered accountants in Bengaluru

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Chennai: Income Tax Department teams on Thursday carried out raids at 50 locations in Bengaluru city and in Karnataka's Bagalkot district, including the residence of a close aide to former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

As many as 300 officers raided the houses and offices of industrialists, contractors, and chartered accountants in the city. Sources said that the action came on information obtained from an insider of the state Irrigation Department on amassing of wealth by the accused persons by evading taxes and other means.

Sources said that IT officers are probing into major discrepancies in the major schemes implemented in the period of Yediyurappa by the Irrigation Department, with thousands of crores said to have crossed hands as a kickback in the process.

The IT sleuths have recovered four bags full of documents from the residence of Umesh, located in Bhashyam circle in Bengaluru. He was said to be dealing with transfers and movement of files under Yediyurappa. Sleuths have also raided 6 locations belonging to Umesh's close relatives.

According to sources, Umesh was a BMTC driver and came in contact with Yediyurappa when he was the opposition leader decades ago. Umesh has also worked as the personal secretary of Yediyurappa for some time and amassed properties in Bengaluru, the sources said.

The IT officers also raided the residences of chartered accountant Amala in Hegde Nagar and R. Lakshmikanth, a resident of Chamundeshwari Layout. Raids have also been conducted at the office of Rahul Enterprises in Sahakarnagar.

A team of IT officers conducted the raid on contractor D.R. Uppar's residence in Bagalkot city in north Karnataka. According to sources, Uppar managed to have good relations with all political parties and got lucrative contracts.

The raids are still continuing in all locations.  Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that he does not know anything about IT raids, and maintained that he will react after obtaining information about them.