After 6 days and a haul of over Rs 350 cr, I-T raids in Odisha end

The Income Tax department winded up its six-day search operation on Tuesday and left the country-liquor manufacturing unit in Odisha's Bolangir district after recovering more than Rs 350 crore in unaccounted cash and about 3 kilograms of gold, officials said.

As the raids were completed, the I-T team took two managers of the distillery located at Sutapada to an unknown location for interrogation, they said.

The company was owned by the family of Congress MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, a resident of Jharkhand.

The Odisha unit of the Congress, however, claimed that the party has no connection with the seizure of the huge unaccounted money, termed as the "highest-ever" haul in a single action by any probe agency in the country.

Following a tip-off regarding tax evasion, the I-T department officials launched a search operation at six locations in Odisha on December 6. More than 200 people including bank employees were engaged in the search and counting of the cash in Bolangir and Sambalpur.

The raids were conducted in Bolangir, Titlagarh, Boudh, Rourkela, Sundergarh and Bhubaneswar. I-T department DG Sanjay Bahadur camped in Bhubaneswar to monitor the raids.

Meanwhile, political parties intensified their protest and blamed each other over the I-T raids.

The opposition BJP's Mahila Morcha on Tuesday held a demonstration in Bhubaneswar and burnt an effigy of Sahu. The party activists demanded a CBI probe into his links with the liquor traders and seizure of cash.

The BJP alleged that the country liquor business and tax evasion have taken place in Odisha due to patronage of the state's BJD government.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattnayak claimed in a press conference that his party has nothing to do with the black money generated through the country liquor trade in the state.

"The BJP leaders across the country have been making allegations against the Congress. However, the I-T department is silent so far. It has not yet issued any statement regarding the source of the money and the alleged involvement of the Congress," Pattnayak said.

Asked about Sahu's involvement, Pattnayak said: "We do not know regarding this. He might have a liquor business but it has nothing to do with the Congress. Above all, he does not belong to Odisha."

In a related development, officials said a three-member ED team visited the I-T department office in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.

However, there was no word on whether ED will take over the investigation.