After five days of counting, the cash seizure in the tax searches against the family of Congress MP Dhiraj Kumar Sahu, owners of an Odisha-based distillery company, reached ₹ 355.5 crore on Sunday.
This extraordinary haul breaks all previous records as the largest single seizure ever made by any investigative agency in India.
The Income Tax Department is now employing cutting-edge technology to search the premises connected to Mr. Sahu for any gold jewelry that might be concealed underground following the enormous cash recovery.
Officials said the I-T teams are using the geo surveillance system – which helps detect the jewellery and other valuables hidden below the ground easily – at the two houses of Dhiraj Sahu in Ranchi and Lohardaga in Jharkhand.
“They found a lot of cash. The department is high-tech, so you can expect the latest available technology to be used in the searches to find moe gold,” the news agency PTI quoted an official as saying.
The raids were launched on December 6 on charges of tax evasion and “off-the-book” transactions.
The enormous cash stash found during raids on Boudh Distilleries and related businesses is thought by the I-T Department to be unaccounted revenue from the sale of domestic alcohol.
A potent counteroffensive was launched by the BJP, targeted at the Congress and other opposition parties. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that their previous claims that the government was abusing its investigative powers are now simply “propaganda,” motivated by their inability to face consequences for their purported corruption.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday assured the public that “looted money” would be returned. The PM shared a Hindi newspaper report showing the mountains of cash recovered by the income tax department.
The Congress, meanwhile, has distanced itself from Dhiraj Sahu and said that it is not connected with the businesses in any way and that the MP should explain the cash and its source.
