The cash seizure in the income-tax department’s searches against an Odisha-based distillery company, owned by a Congress MP’s family, has been calculated at Rs 351 crore after five days of counting and is the “highest-ever” haul in a single action by any probe agency in the country, official sources said on Sunday.
The premises of the Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, in Ranchi and other places, were also covered during the searches by the department. 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 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.
As many as 200 bags and trunks were used to transport the cash for depositing it in various bank branches in Odisha, the sources said. The department believes that the entire cache of currency is “unaccounted” money earned from cash sales of country liquor by the business group, distributors and others.
It is the highest-ever cash seizure made by an agency in the country as part of an action against a single group and entities linked to it, the sources had said. It was not clear what amount of cash and other documents were seized from Sahu’s house.
The BJP on Sunday stepped up its attack on the Congress and other opposition parties, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying it is now clear that their “propaganda” about probe agencies being misused was driven by the fear that their corruption will be exposed. In a statement, the senior BJP leader questioned the “silence” of INDIA bloc leaders, saying
