In Jharkhand, three more bags containing cash were taken from the residence of Congress MP Dheeraj Sahu. Since Wednesday, tax raids have been conducted at several sites in Jharkhand and Odisha connected to him. Even though more than Rs 200 crore in unaccounted cash has been recovered so far, tax raids continued on Saturday at the Odisha and Jharkhand homes of Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Dheeraj Sahu. They started the raids on Wednesday, December 6.
In a recent development, the Income Tax terms apprehended three additional bags from Dheeraj Sahu’s Ranchi premises, and they confiscated neatly nineteen bags of cash from the residence of a certain Bunty Sahu, who was assigned to oversee the upkeep of liquor factories in the areas where raids were taking place in Odisha.
According to sources, the amount taken from Bunty Sahu’s home was anticipated to exceed Rs 20 crore because the money was being transferred to banks in Sudpara, Balangir, and Odisha. According to sources, the Bolangir district had over a hundred Income Tax Department officers stationed at various locations.
We are currently collaborating to count every penny in the next two days. We currently have fifty employees, and more will be invited to join us shortly. Bhagat Beherea, who is the regional manager of the State Bank of India in Bolangir, said.
Only 40 of the 176 money bag packets that were sent to us were completed for counting. The remaining packets are currently being counted. Thus far, we have tallied forty crore rupees. At Titlagarh, some money was also counted over. As continued, the proper security system has been set up in bank areas.
Meanwhile, searches by the Income Tax Department against Odisha-based Boudh Distillery Private Limited and entities connected to it have turned up unaccounted cash worth about Rs. 225 crore, according to the news agencies.
The Income Tax Department has implemented twelve counting machines. The machine’s limited capacity is causing the counting to process slowly, according to sources.
The distillery group’s premises in the Bolangir district of Odisha yielded cash-stashed almirahs totaling Rs 200 crore, according to officials. The remaining cash was discovered in various locations, including Sambalpur and Sundargarh in Odisha, Bokaro and Ranchi in Jharkhand, and Kolkata.
The Income Tax team also searched the Ranisati Rice Mill, the company’s factory and office in Boudh, the homes of some company officials, and the corporate office of Boudh Distillery Pvt. Ltd. in Palasapalli, Bhubaneswar.
Numerous ripped Rs 500 banknotes were discovered concealed close to the Boudh Distillery Private Limited (BDPL) in Titirikaa, under the Harabhanga block, according to a report from the Boudh district. The locals were shocked to see large amounts of shredded cash near the company’s perimeter wall. According to the former IT commissioner, Sarat Chandra Dash, this may be the biggest cash seizure made by the Odisha Income Tax Department to date.
Dash remarked, “I have never encountered the recovery of such a substantial amount of cash in the state.”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized the opposition party for the cash seizures in a post on X.
