It was a early morning development which rocked Karnataka . As sleuths of the  IT  department on Wednesday morning raided Karnataka Power Minister DK Shivakumar’s residence and at the Eagleton resort on Bengaluru outskirts where 44 Congress lawmakers from Gujarat are staying.

Reacting to the development where accompanied by CRPF officials , the IT officials raided several locations  in Bengaluru including the residence of D K Shivakumar , Siddaramaiah said that it is the habit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to use Income Tax department raids against those who raise voice against them. It’s against the grain of democratic policy to use IT raids. BJP uses raids against people who raise voice against it, said Siddaramaiah.

Apart from it, the residence of his brother and MP D K Suresh was also raided.

Simultaneously, the minister’s offices in Delhi were also inspected.  Sources added that more than 200 officials are involved in the investigation.

Earlier in the day, Congress cornered the government in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha over the Income Tax raids against Shivakumar. The Rajya Sabha witnessed angry protests by the opposition parties against the “witch-hunt by the government”.

Attacking the BJP, Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “Conduct raids on residences of those people from your party (BJP) who are offering Rs 15 crore.”  Even the Loksabha witnessed angry protests . Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge asserted that the BJP-led Centre was resorting to IT raid in wake of the Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat.

Kharge, defending his party in the Lower House, said that the ruling dispensation would not be successful in trying to pick on their party leaders. Just to defeat one Rajya Sabha candidate, they are doing all this, but they will not be successful, said Kharge.

 I-T officials claimed they had recovered Rs 7.5 crore cash from the minister’s properties, who has been taken to his house in Bengaluru from the resort by the tax sleuths.

The searches were conducted by the Karnataka Investigation Wing of the Income tax department. The Income Tax Department said in a press release that the searches were authorised under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act as an evidence gathering exercise. The I-T Department denied that the raids had anything to do with the ongoing political drama at Eagleton resorts.