Bengaluru, October 10: The Income Tax department on Thursday conducted raids at premises allegedly linked to former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara. Around 30 premises allegedly linked to Parameshwara were being searched by the I-T officials who reportedly found irregularities in a medical college run by a trust related to the Congress leader, news agency ANI reported. HD Deve Gowda, Siddaramaiah Engage in War of Words Over Collapse of JDS-Congress Government in Karnataka.

Reacting to the development, Parameshwara said that he was unaware of any such raid. I am not aware of the raid. I don't know where they are doing it. Let them search I have no issue. If there is any fault from our side, we will rectify it," the Congress leader told reporters. Parameshwara is the second Congress leader who is now under I-T lens. Senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar is already in judicial custody over money laundering charges.

Shivakumar, who is currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on September 3 in connection with its probe into the charges of money laundering after questioning him for four days. The arrest came after the Karnataka High Court rejected his plea for interim protection from the arrest.

The former Karnataka minister is accused of being involved in hawala transactions in violation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The ED had in September last year registered the money laundering case against Shivakumar based on a chargesheet filed by the Income Tax department.

Incidentally, the actions against Congress leader began after the 14-month-old Janata Dal Secular-Congress coalition government collapsed on July 22. The confidence motion moved by then Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was defeated in the assembly. Sixteen MLAs (13 from the Congress and 3 JDS) had resigned as legislators which culminated in the fall of the coalition government.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 10, 2019 12:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).