Bengaluru: In the early hours of Thursday, Income Tax officials conducted a search and seizure operation at the homes of Minor Irrigation Minister CS Puttaraju and his relatives. The operations were carried out just hours after Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy announced that over 300 I-T officials along with CRPF jawans were en route to Mandya to conduct raids on JD(S) leaders.

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Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misusing the Income-Tax Department to threaten political leaders of the ruling JD-S and Congress in Karnataka, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said the I-T raids were nothing but "revenge politics by the BJP-led NDA government". They also conducted search and seizure operations at the home of Puttaraju’s nephew Ashok located in Mysuru city’s Vijayanagar area. Ashok is a contractor for national and state highway works. Income Tax sources say that Puttaraju’s close aide Ramesh, another class 1 contractor, may also face search operations due to his close proximity with the minister. Terming these raids as Modi's real and open surgical strikes, the Chief Minister alleged that the offer of a constitutional post to the I-T Director-General B.R. Balakrishnan has helped the Prime Minister in his revenge game.

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