Modi Conducting Real Surgical Strike, Kumaraswamy After IT Raids on Minister

Raids were conducted on Puttaraju who is overseeing election campaign of Nikhil Kumaraswamy.

Bengaluru: In a major blow to Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, a team of Income Tax officials conducted raids at the residence of JD(S) leader and Karnataka Minor Irrigation Minister C S Puttaraju and his nephew in the early hours of Thursday.

Puttaraju is the key man for the Chief Minister as he is overseeing the election campaign of  Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil, who is fighting his maiden election from the Mandya Lok Sabha seat.

Just yesterday, Kumaraswamy had raised fears about possible raids on Congress and JD(S) leaders in the state allegedly on the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Interestingly, the I-T dept chose CRPF personnel as security instead of the state police force.

The raids were conducted at Puttaraju’s Chinnakurli residence in Mandya and his nephew’s house in Mysuru. The minister said that he was not afraid and the incident has instilled confidence in him. “I’m not deterred by the raids, which are election-related. I would like to know which BJP leader’s house in Karnataka has been raided,” he said.

According to sources at least 10 to 15 raids have been carried out across Bengaluru and elsewhere.

Reacting to the development, Kumaraswamy tweeted, “PM Narendra Modi’s real surgical strike is out in the open through IT dept raids. The constitutional post offer for IT officer Balakrishna helped the PM in his revenge game. Highly deplorable to use govt machinery, corrupt officials to harass opponents during election time.”