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The leader of Opposition in Assembly Jagadish Shettar questioned the integrity of Congress leaders who are rallying behind ’tainted’ minister D K Shivakumar.

Speaking to media persons here on Saturday, Shettar said by staging a protest across the State against the Income Tax (IT) Department raid against Shivakumar, the Congress leaders are trying to protect the corrupt. “Is this their way of being transparent and giving clean governance?” he asked.

Taking moral obligations the minister should have voluntarily resigned from his post or the chief minister should have asked the minister to tender resignation till his name is cleared of all charges, he said.

During the UPA’s government tenure, the CBI and IT department officials had raided our minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. He was also jailed. Did any of the BJP leaders stage a protest against that? At that time BJP was clear that the investigation should take its natural course and at the end, the truth shall prevail.

“If the Congress leaders are so sure of Shivakumar being innocent, then why are they opposing the IT raids? Let the natural course of investigation take place and truth come out,” he said and added that the IT raids were not planned a week or 15 days ago, the department has made detailed preparation and the planning process might have taken three to six months, he said.

Shettar condemned the efforts of Chief Minister Siddaraaiaha and Congress leaders of putting the blame on BJP National President Amith Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders of BJP.

The BJP leader demanded a response from the chief minister against the allegations made by Shivakumar’s mother, who blamed Siddaramaiah for the IT raids.

Responding to the allegations of selective targeting of opposition leaders by a central agency, he said the agencies have also raided the house of his party leaders, builders and others.

When asked about similar allegations of corruption being made against Union Minister Ananth Kumar, Shettar said during the UPA government an investigation into the case was done and the case was closed as they (UPA government) found no proofs against him. The State government has its own machinery, which it can use to investigate cases against BJP leaders in State if they want.