I-T raid politically motivated, Madhya Pradesh CM's OSD tells HC

Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal argued before the Madhya Pradesh High Court here Thursday that the income tax raid against the officer on special duty (OSD) to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath was politically motivated and without jurisdiction.

Sibal, a Congress leader, is representing Nath's OSD Praveen Kakkar.

Kakkar has moved the Indore bench of the high court seeking that the I-T department's action against him be declared as illegal.

The hearing before a bench of Justices Prakash Shrivastava and Vivek Rusia lasted for nearly four hours.

Sibal said the raid by the Delhi unit of the Income Tax Department on Kakkar's premises here was politically motivated, and it harmed Kakkar's reputation.

Further, the Delhi unit had no jurisdiction to conduct a raid in Indore, Sibal said.

He also questioned the legality of deployment of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel during the raid, instead of the state police.

Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain defended the I-T Department action, saying it was perfectly legal.

As Sibal wanted to make some technical amendments to Kakkar's plea, the court asked him to file an application in this regard on Monday.

The raid at Kakkar's premises, days ahead of Lok Sabha elections, began in the early hours of Sunday and lasted till late Monday evening.

Kakkar, a former police official, claimed that nothing objectionable was found during the search.