Congress MP Dheeraj Sahu is in focus as raids by the Income Tax Department continue at his premises. The cash recovery during the searches has crossed Rs 350 crore.
Income Tax (I-T) department raids on companies belonging to Dhiraj Sahu, a member of the Indian parliament, ended on Sunday (Dec 10) after more than three days.
The raids turned up more than INR 353 crore (a staggering 42 million dollars), which happens to be the largest cash haul in a single operation. It has now snowballed into a major political controversy as it involves a Congress leader.
The largest haul
The marathon raids against Boudh Distillery Private Limited, its promoters, and others entered the fifth day on Sunday. The raids were launched on December 6 by the taxman on charges of tax evasion and “off-the-book” transactions.
The sources told PTI that ₹ 351 crore cash has been counted and the process has ended. The counting involved nine teams of about 80 people from the tax department and various banks, working in shifts in a 24×7 cycle.
Another team of 200 officials, including security personnel, drivers, and other staff, joined in after the taxman found 10 almirahs stuffed with cash apart from some other locations.
According to the sources, up to 200 bags and trunks were utilized to move the cash before it was deposited in several Odisha bank branches.
According to the government, the entire money cache is thought to be “unaccounted” revenue that the business group, distributors, and others made from the cash sales of country booze.
A few high-profile seizures from the past include one in 2019, when the GST Intelligence raided a businessman in Kanpur and found cash worth ₹ 257 crores, and another in July 2018, when the I-T department found cash worth ₹ 163 crores while conducting searches against a road construction company in Tamil Nadu.
It was not clear what amount of cash and other documents were seized from Mr Sahu’s house.
The maximum cache of currency, largely in ₹ 500 denomination, was recovered from the premises of the company in Bolangir district, the sources said.
The senior BJP leader questioned the “silence” of INDIA bloc leaders,
In a statement, he said he could understand why the Congress is keeping mum but wondered why parties like the TMC, DMK, JD(U), and the RJD were doing the same.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the Centre of targeting solely the Congress and questioned why no searches were conducted against BJP leaders, while the Congress has distanced itself from the MP and stated that the party has nothing to do with his business.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Friday assured the people that the money looted from the public would be returned and had posted a Hindi newspaper report where the cash recovered by the IT department was shown stacked.
Taking to X, he had said, “The countrymen should look at the pile of these notes and then listen to the honest speeches’ of their leaders …Whatever has been looted from the public, every penny will have to be returned, this is Modi’s guarantee.”
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