I-T officials questions D K Shivakumar for over four hours

BENGALURU: Karnataka Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and his brother and Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh were questioned for more than four hours by the Income Tax officials on Monday.

Shivakumar arrived at the office, located on Queen’s Road, around 10.30am and was questioned in connection with the raids conducted at his various properties last week. Following these raids from Aug 2 to Aug 5, the minister was summoned under Section 131 of the Income Tax Act.

Speaking to media persons after the questioning, which ended around 2.45 pm, Shivakumar said that he was co-operating with the I-T sleuths and had appeared before them following the summons. “They have said that they would call me for questioning if required. They, however, have not instructed me to appear again,” he said.

Noting that the officials had asked him to submit some documents, he said the papers would be submitted to them by his auditor. “This is not the first time I am appearing in front of I-T officials. I have appeared several times in the past, whenever they have asked me to,” he said.

The raids against Shivakumar had kicked up a controversy as it was conducted at a time when he hosted 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs at Eagleton Resort, near Bengaluru. Apart from Shivakumar and Suresh, MLC and their relative S Ravi and several others were raided. Among the ones who appeared before the I-T sleuths included Dwarakanath, Shivakumar’s astrologer, whose residence was also raided.