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Politics first

Congress is crying foul over the IT raids on D K Shivakumar and his close associates on 2 August 2017. The reason for this is the alleged amassing of wealth disproportionate to known sources of income. The fact that it took place in the backdrop of 42 MLAs from Gujarat being housed in a resort close to Bangalore and DKS taking keen personal interest in the issue made it a suspect. It is no secret that many politicians named by Association for Democratic Reforms have amassed huge amount of money during their stint as politicians/ministers. DKS incidentally is named as second richest in the country with Rs. 251 crores (known) as personal wealth.
Things are getting interesting as politician after politician raided by IT or ED have leveled charges of political vendetta or witch hunt to oppose the charges.First it was Lalu Prasad Yadav, who under the heat of multiple accusations of benami properties in the name of son and daughter, hit out at the Center accusing it of witch-hunt. Now in the case of DKS, the Congress is going all guns claiming that the raids were political in nature and the timing was a suspect. None of them are talking about the fact that IT in particular had enough prima facie reasons for the raids and it is a known fact that DKS is the money-man for the Congress party in Karnataka.
The IT department has recovered 11 crore in cash and are looking into tax evasions and huge amounts of undisclosed investments in land and jewellery. The Enforcement Directorate is likely to take over the probe as foreign exchange violation is alleged. A man who comes from a humble background and in three decades of political career amasses amazing wealth, known and unknown, is bound to come under scrutiny. It is just that it took so much time for this to finally happen. Greed is the biggest bane of our politicians and some at least have to pay a price.

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