India's premier probe agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday conducted raids at the premises of Karnataka's Congress chief, DK Shivakumar, in connection with a corruption case.
According to a senior agency official, parliamentarian DK Suresh's house is also being searched. Suresh is the brother of Karnataka's top Congress leader Shivakumar.
"A total of 14 premises across the country linked to DK Shivakumar, his family members, and his associates are being searched by our teams", the CBI official said.
The official further revealed that the agency had registered the alleged corruption case following input shared by the country’s economic intelligence agency, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over a money laundering probe related to tax evasion proceedings by the Income Tax Department.
During the money laundering probe, the economic intelligence agency passed on their findings to CBI last year. The state government had given the go ahead to the CBI to launch the investigation into this case against Shivakumar.
Following the development, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala slammed the ruling BJP government and called the CBI a "puppet" of PM Modi.
Former Karnataka state chief, Siddaramaiah also blasted the BJP government after the raids were carried out. He took to Twitter and said that the "BJP has always tried to indulge in vindictive politics and mislead public attention. The raid is another attempt to derail our preparation for bypolls", he tweeted.