TAP TO UNMUTE

In an embarrassment to the Congress party in Karnataka, the income-tax department raided the residences of small-scale industries minister Ramesh L Jarkiholi and state Congress women's wing president Laxmi Hebbalkar in Belagavi and Gokak towns on Thursday.

The Karnataka Minister came under the scanner after the I-T department was informed of unexplained cash deposits in accounts of his family and benami deposits in primary cooperative societies. The minister’s has also come under the scanner.

Sources revealed that the IT found unexplained cash deposits in the bank accounts of the minister's family, cash deposits in Benami names in primary cooperative societies, creation of bogus assets and unaccounted income amounting to ₹115.2 crore was made by an entity whose main promoter was the minister Ramesh Jharkioli himself.

Sources tell TIMES NOW that after raiding the premises associated with the Minister in Belgaum, Bangalore and Gokak, the IT authorities have found evidence of Tax Evasion.

I-T officials from Goa, Bengaluru and Hubballi conducted the raids on Jarkiholi, his younger brother Lakhan L Jarkiholi, the minister's trusted aides Hussainsab Mulla and Ali Atthar's houses in Belagavi and Gokak. In Hebbalkar's case, her house in upscale Kuvempunagar in Belagavi, two sisters' residences in Hanuman Nagar and the Harsha sugar factory owned by her were also raided.