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After Income Tax authorities seized Rs 42 crore from a contractor's house in Bengaluru city, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwath Narayan on Tuesday took a dig at the Congress party and said "It is an ATM Sarkar and is completely exposed."
The BJP staged a protest in Bengaluru over the alleged corruption in the state. As a way to protest, the protestors carried a fake ATM model on which Karnataka Congress--ATM Sarkar was written with money withdrawn out of it. "In Karnataka, Congress means corruption. Since coming to power, Congress has been looting the state. They have been collecting money from the officers for transfers, from the contractors to fund the elections in 5 states. It is an ATM Sarkar. They have been completely exposed by the IT raids. Deputy CM Shivakumar is making allegations against the BJP. Congress and Shivakumar are trademarks of corruption. We are asking the government for CBI's enquiry into the matter. The people of the state want to know the truth. Don't make baseless allegations, let the truth come out," Ashwath Narayan said. Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday refuted the allegations made by the BJP that the money recovered in the raids conducted by the Income Tax department belongs to the Congress government. DK Shivakumar said that the Income Tax department has unearthed the corruption which entirely belongs to the BJP. Former CM of Karnataka, Sadananda Gowda also took part in the protest and said "The things that are happening--the corruption and collection of money by the ruling party in Karnataka. It is quite unacceptable. Practically, crores of rupees that have been seized by IT is an example of this. We need an enquiry. Let CBI enquire into the matter. Find the person who is behind this." Income Tax officials in a raid on the residence linked to a former corporator in Bengaluru city on October 13 unearthed an amount of Rs 42 crore stashed in 23 cartons. According to officials privy to the investigation, the cash was packed in cartons and stashed under the bed of a flat owned by the corporator. The IT sleuths raided five locations linked to the former corporator. The raids sparked off a heated debate with BJP alleging that the money was part of Congress's illegal fund, meant for campaigning in assembly polls in Telangana and four other states to be held in November. (ANI)
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