New Delhi/Bhubaneswar:
The seizure of cash in searches by the Income Tax department against an Odisha-based distillery company, owned by the family of a Congress MP, has been calculated at Rs 351 crore after five days of counting and is the “highest” recovery ever in a single action. by any investigating agency in the country, official sources said on Sunday.
The premises of Jharkhand Congress Rajya Sabha member Dhiraj Prasad Sahu in Ranchi and other places were also examined during the department's searches. The company and the MP did not respond to PTI's queries about the action being taken against them.
The marathon attacks against Boudh Distillery Private Limited, its promoters and others entered the fifth day on Sunday. The raids were launched on December 6 by the tax authorities on charges of tax evasion and “off-the-books” transactions.
The sources told PTI that Rs 351 crore cash has been counted and the process has ended.
The count involved nine teams of about 80 people from the tax authorities and several banks, working in shifts on a 24×7 cycle.
Another team of 200 officials, including security personnel, drivers and other staff, joined after the revenue officer found 10 almirahs full of cash, apart from some other locations.
As many as 200 bags and suitcases were used to transport the money and deposit it in various bank branches in Odisha, the sources said.
The department believes that the entire stock of currency is 'unrecorded' money earned from cash sales of local liquor by the business group, distributors and others.
It is the highest ever seizure of cash by any agency in the country as part of an action against a single group and associated entities, the sources said.
Some of the high-value seizures from the past include one from 2019, when the GST Intelligence raided the home of a Kanpur businessman and seized cash worth Rs 257 crore, and another case where cash amounting to Rs 163 crore by the IT department was unearthed during searches. against a road construction company in Tamil Nadu in July 2018.
The department is also recording the statements of the executives and other staff present at the searched locations and will soon issue summons to the company's top promoters for recording their statements.
It is not clear how much cash and other documents were seized from Mr Sahu's home.
The maximum amount of currency, mostly in denomination of Rs 500, was recovered from the company's premises in Bolangir district, the sources said.
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 misuse of investigative agencies was motivated by fears that their corruption would be exposed would come.
In a statement, the senior BJP leader questioned the 'silence' of the INDIA bloc leaders and said he can understand why the Congress is silent but wondered why parties like the TMC, DMK, JD(U) and the RJD did the same.
While the Congress has distanced itself from the MP, claiming that the party has nothing to do with its affairs, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the Center of targeting only the Congress and asked why searches were not conducted against BJP leaders.
Jharkhand Congress in-charge Avinash Pandey said, “Since he is a Congressman, he should make an official statement on how such a large amount of money came to him.” Union Tourism Minister and BJP leader G Kishan Reddy wondered why Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was “silent” on the issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured people on Friday that the money looted from the public will be returned and posted a Hindi newspaper report showing the money recovered by the IT department stacked.
Turning to . is Modi's guarantee.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)