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Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, K S Eshwarappa, who is also the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party has found himself in an embarrassing situation following a Lokayukta raid at his residence in Shimoga.
The Lokayukta, which seized 19 kilograms of gold, silver and cash from his residence, have been probing the case under disproportionate assets.
Eshwarappa, however, claims that he is not worried, as all these were gifts and he has documents to prove it. Meanwhile, the Lokayukta is trying to ascertain if these were really gifts and why he had not declared it.
The Lokayukta have claimed that the money and the valuable found at Eshwarappa's residence were not proportionate to his known source of income. They are also looking into a currency counter that was found at Eshwarappa's house during the raid.
Eshwarappa and his sons are planning on filing for anticipatory bail although there are no indications of any arrest now. In a disproportionate assets case, although there is no bar in arresting a person after a raid, investigators do not usually do so, unless there is lack of cooperation. In this case, the Lokayukta has found Eshwarappa to be cooperative.
The Lokayukta is awaiting orders to conduct verification of more documents and are also looking into some land deals. They are also looking into at least 35 property documents that belong to 12 different organisations.
Eshwarappa would now have to explain these land deals as he does not mention that these too were gifts. The Lokayukta officers say that the bank transactions are also under examination and they would file a report by February 4 in this regard.