CRPF in Bengaluru to carry out I-T raids on Thursday, alleges Kumaraswamy
Warned Centre of following Mamata Bannerjee if it tries to bully them
Bengaluru, Mar 27: Raising fears about possible income tax raids on Congress-JD(S) functionaries, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Wednesday claimed CRPF personnel have been brought from various parts of the country to carry out I-T raids in Karnataka.
"I have got a specific information that some 200 to 300 CRPF sleuths have arrived from various parts of the country.
They will be ferried from the airport to the city.
They have been brought to Bengaluru from other states to carry out income tax raids in Karnataka," Kumaraswamy told reporters at Mandya.
He claimed that the raids may be carried out at 5 am Thursday.
I-T officials were not immediately available for comment.
Striking a belligerent note, Kumaraswamy warned the BJP-led NDA government that he would follow what his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee did if it tried to "bully" the Congress-JDS coalition partners.
Banerjee had staged a "Save the Constitution" dharna from February 3 to 5 at Kolkata after the CBI's failed bid to question Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with chit fund cases.
Kumaraswamy alleged that the Centre had resorted to politics of vengeance using the income tax officials as its agents.
Sending a stern message to income tax officials, he said, "I know the game income tax officials are playing at the final stage of election.
They should be cautious because if they think that they can function like the agents of a political party forever, they may end up repenting."
Kumaraswamy accused the income tax officials of being unfair. He said usually the taxmen take the help of state police while carrying out raids but this time they brought CRPF jawans from various parts of the country.
"Let us see from whom they will collect... I think the Congress and the JD(S) functionaries can be the target," the chief minister said.
Insisting that he never believed in politics of vengeance, Kumaraswamy said he never came in the way of Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths to raid corrupt officials.
"If they (Centre) try to bully us, I will follow what Mamata Bannerjee did," he added.
Alarmed by the disclosure, the Congress' Karnataka unit wanted to know whether I-T, Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation were the arms of the BJP-led Central government to win elections.
"Are the CBI, I-T and ED the election tools against the opposition parties? First time in the history of India (Prime Minister) Modi misused the autonomous institutions on large-scale.
People will teach a lesson to a failed Narendra Modi for his action against the leaders of coalition government," the Congress tweeted.
Lok Sabha elections are being held in two phases in Karnataka on April 18 and 23.
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Codeine syrup seized in UP; six held in separate operations in Etah, Mirzapur
Etah/Mirzapur (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Police have intensified their crackdown on the alleged illegal trade, diversion and distribution of regulated codeine-based cough syrup, arresting six persons in separate operations in Etah and Mirzapur districts, officials said on Monday.
The action comes as the probe widened into the alleged codiene syrup trafficking racket, suspected to be involved in illicit trade estimated to be worth hundreds of crores -- with links stretching across several states and possibly beyond international borders.
In Etah, a joint team of the Agra anti-narcotics unit and Aliganj police recovered 47 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup, estimated to be worth around Rs 50 lakh, from a tobacco warehouse under Aliganj police station area limits Sunday night.
Four persons, including a retired serviceman, were arrested on the spot, police said.
According to police, the raid was carried out at a warehouse in Nagla Bani village following a tip-off. Preliminary investigation revealed that the seized cough syrup bore the name of a Baddi-based pharmaceutical company, 'Wings', but the batch numbers printed on the wrappers had been deliberately scratched off, indicating that the consignment was illegally manufactured.
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The arrested accused have been identified as Jitendra Yadav, Jitendra Shakya, Pramod Shakya and Punjab Singh, a retired soldier. Cases have been registered against them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and other relevant sections, and further investigation is underway, police said.
Official sources said the Etah recovery is suspected to be linked to Varanasi-based drug trader, Shubham Jaiswal, who is allegedly associated with an international drug syndicate.
A lookout circular has already been issued against him, while his father was arrested earlier from Kolkata. The main accused remains absconding, officials said.
In a separate development, Mirzapur police arrested two more accused -- Ajit Yadav and Akshat Yadav -- in connection with a case of illegal supply of codeine-based cough syrup registered at Adalhat police station. The arrests were made on Sunday evening following sustained investigation of the suspects, police said.
According to officials, the two accused had allegedly floated firms using forged Aadhaar cards and supplied cough syrup through fake documentation.
During investigation, police found that transactions worth over Rs 1 crore had been routed through bank accounts opened in Varanasi in the name of the fake firms.
Police said Akshat Yadav, proprietor of a firm named A K Distributors, was supplied around 36 litre of New Phensedyl cough syrup (100 ml bottles) from a trader based in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
The firm was found to be non-functional on the ground, and records showed it had been opened only once or twice without carrying out any genuine pharmaceutical business.
Further scrutiny revealed that the Aadhaar card used for obtaining the drug licence carried a Mirzapur address and was forged, while a different Aadhaar card with a Varanasi address was used for banking purposes, pointing to deliberate fabrication of documents, police said. The firm's bank account in Varanasi showed a turnover of around Rs 1.28 crore.
The two accused have been booked under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the NDPS Act and sent to jail. Police said involvement of more suspects is likely and the investigation is ongoing.
Officials said the recoveries and arrests form part of a broader state-wide investigation into the illegal diversion of codeine-based cough syrup, a regulated drug.
