Agencies not being misused: Rajnath tells K'taka leaders

Bengaluru: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday rejected the accusation made by the Congress and JD(S) that central agencies were being misused to harass the ruling coalition leaders in Karnataka, saying he did not think such things happen.

"I don't think, it is the job of CBI or ED to harass people. I don't think such things happen. People should stop making such accusations. It is not good. Aren't we all sitting together or not?" said Singh pointing to chief minister H D Kumaraswamy who was sitting next to him.

Congress and the JD(S) have been accusing the Modi government of using the central agencies such as CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax department to harass state senior minister D K Shivakumar for taking on the BJP time and again.

Singh's rebuttal came on a day when the ED registered a money laundering case against Shivakumar and few others on the basis of an alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions case.

The agency has booked Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, according to officials. The case has been filed based on a charge sheet (prosecution complaint) filed by the Income Tax Department against him early this year before a special court in Bengaluru on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions worth crores.

The agency is expected to summon the accused soon for recording their statements.

Earlier, deputy chief minister G Parameshwara, who holds the home portfolio, had told a private T V channel "We don't object to whatever they (ED and other central agencies) are doing within the framework of law but our only concern is why repeatedly they are harassing him like that."

"If he has done something wrong then bring him within the framework of the law. Everybody suspects that there is something else to these kind of harassments, may be political or something else," he said.

On the issue of National Register of Citizens, Singh said each country should have information about the natives and foreign nationals staying in the country. "There is no harm in having such information (about the citizens).The NRC process has started in Assam only. We will see what can be done next," he said.