The seizure of over ₹1.5 crore from a city hotel room, where an engineer of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department was staying and allegedly collecting money from contractors, led to political bickering between the BJP and Congress.
Sources said Narayana Gouda B. Patil, executive engineer posted in Haveri, was not present during the I-T searches on Thursday night and he was still at large, but the statement of his driver, who was there, had been recorded. I-T sources said the money was suspected to be towards paying politicians to meet the expenditure in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Soon after, the BJP lodged a complaint with Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, alleging that the driver “confessed” that the money was brought to pay Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Krishna Byre Gowda towards election expenses.
