So far, currency notes worth ₹300 crore have been counted; IT officials estimate the total seizure in Odisha to be more than ₹350 crore.
So far, currency notes worth ₹300 crore have been counted; IT officials estimate the total seizure to be more than ₹350 crore.
The raids began on Wednesday and continued till Saturday at locations linked to Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd, which is located in the Boudh region of Odisha. They also occurred in the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The company is linked to Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, Dheeraj Sahu. His son Ritesh Sahu holds the position of managing director, and his elder brother Uday Shankar Prasad serves as the chairman of the enterprise. Extra Neutral Alcohol is the company’s primary raw material used to manufacture alcoholic beverages.
IT agents searched the house of liquor businessman Raj Kishore Jaiswal on Saturday; It is said that Jaiswal is related to Sahu.
The agency had earlier said the raids were launched in response to “actionable intelligence” about substantial “out-of-book” sales and cash remittances by liquor wholesalers, retailers and trade associations.
Twenty bags of cash were taken from the Balangir house of liquor businessman Bunty Sahu, business partner of Ritesh Sahu, MD of Boudh Distillery Private Limited, on Friday night. A senior IT official, on condition of anonymity, said that the money has not been counted yet.
“To speed up the process, we have installed about forty big and small equipment for counting the notes. We have requested that employees of other nationalized banks join the counting process at SBI [State Bank of India] on Sunday. Balangir and Sambalpur districts,” officials said.
IT officials said the seizures from the most unlikely of places – huts and dilapidated cabinets in liquor shops – left them “stunned”. For some time we felt as if we were in the strong room of a bank. Wherever we raided there were ₹500, ₹200 and ₹100 (value) bills,” an IT team member said on condition of anonymity.
The government claims that the cash seized from a single organization and its associated companies in Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal is the largest seizure of cash by any agency in the country. According to IT officials, ₹250 crore of the ₹300 crore taken was taken from several shelves at the company’s facilities in the Balangir area. The remaining ₹300 crore was taken from sites in Titlagarh (also in Balangir district), Sambalpur and Ranchi.
“Though no one has been arrested yet, IT sleuths are recording statements of company officials and individuals involved,” another official said.
The department has also called a team of twenty people from Hyderabad to analyze the documents and electronic data found during the raid.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held press conferences across the country on Saturday and claimed that the seizure of huge amounts of cash was indicative of Congress corruption. This came a day after Prime Minister Modi posted a news article about the raids on Ax, saying “Citizens should look at these mountains of cash and then look at the honesty given by its (Congress) leaders.” Speeches must be heard.” Every penny taken from individuals must be given back. This is Modi’s assurance.
On Saturday, senior BJP leader and Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan expressed his concern about the situation and asked whether politicians from his home state Odisha were also involved in wrongdoing.
However, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha said its leaders have no links with the liquor dealers against whom the Income Tax Department has taken action.
“The Chief Minister (Naveen Patnaik) has assured that the law will take its course. BJD MLA Satyanarayan Pradhan said, whoever is at fault will not be spared and action will be taken against the wrongdoers.
Sahu is a three-time Rajya Sabha member from Jharkhand, where state BJP president Babulal Marandi has claimed that the recovered funds will reach Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Along with forming the government, Marandi said that Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have united to protect each other against corruption.
