2nd day of ED raids on Satish Jarkiholi, daughter: Foreign money trail under lens

Bengaluru: For the second straight day, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided senior Congress Minister Satish Jarkiholi and his parliamentarian daughter over alleged illegal foreign transactions.ED sources told DH that officials sought several financial documents related to Jarkiholi’s transactions, including mining, sugar and related sectors abroad, especially in Africa. ED officials have taken into their possession some files allegedly connected to his businesses.The raids — launched under FEMA at 18 places belonging to Jarkiholi, the PWD minister in the state government, his daughter and Chikkodi MP Priyanka Jarkiholi, his son Rahul Jarkiholi, and brother-in-law and the Additional Excise Commissioner, Enforcement and Crime, Belagavi, Y Manjunath, continued till 2 am and resumed at 6 am.’I was in process of investing overseas’: Satish Jarkiholi to ED, refrains from calling raid politically motivatedTowards the evening, BJP MLA Balachandra Jarkiholi visited the residence of his elder brother Satish in Gokak. Raids at some other locations continued, sources said.According to multiple reports, officials discovered around Rs 3 crore in unaccounted-for cash. It is yet to be ascertained whether the money was discovered during the current raid or was seized during previous searches on the Excise Department involving funds suspected to have been funnelled through illegal foreign channels.When asked, ED sources neither confirmed nor denied the cash seizures. “Multiple teams are executing the searches. It is premature to reveal the seizure details now. The agency operates on strict protocols,” they said.Local sources said some of the cash was found in Jarkiholi’s residence at Gokak, as ED officials also brought trunks used in banks. Jarkiholi’s CAs Pradeep Indi and Saidappa Gadadi were also called in for questioning.Officials questioned the auditors regarding the financials to establish a probable money trail, sources said. Jarkiholi, his daughter and others remained confined at their residences without any contact with the outside world till the raids concluded.Sources said that at this stage, the central agency had not decided whether or not to arrest the senior Congress leader, his parliamentarian daughter or others, as evidence collection was still underway."The fresh raids were launched based on prima facie evidence gathered in a previous raid on excise officers, including the minister’s brother-in-law,” sources said.ED officials, flanked by CRPF commandos, executed raids on the residences of Jarkiholi at Kuvempu Nagar in Belagavi and in Gokak, Manjunath at Doordarshan Nagar, Dr Girish Sonwalkar at Laxmi Tek and his aides Malagouda Patil at Kadoli village in Belagavi, as well as Raju Dharagshetti and Vithal Parsannavar at Gokak. The senior Congressman’s official residence near Sivananda Circle and another house in RMV 2nd Stage, both in Bengaluru, were also searched.

Source: Deccan Herald