Kanpur pan masala trader also raided

After last week’s operations on the Samajwadi Party leaders and businessmen close to the SP, the Income Tax and GST teams on Thursday once again conducted raids on the offices and premises of industrialists close to Akhilesh Yadav.

Raids on premises linked to a businessman Piyush Jain, who had launched Samajwadi Attar (perfume) last month in the presence of the SP chief, have led to the recovery of Rs 150 crore cash, so far, IT department sources said.

A photograph that went viral on social media also showed IT and GST officials squatting on a floral sheet spread in the middle of a room and surrounded by piles of cash and three note-counting machines. In Kanpur, the office and residence of the industrialist was raided by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) and IT teams on Thursday.

His brother Pammi Jain is a senior leader in the Samajwadi Party. Besides, IT teams also raided the premises of pan masala trader KK Agarwal in Kanpur. The raids were initiated by GST (Goods and Services Tax) officials for tax evasion.

After unearthing detail, the Income Tax, Department was also roped in. Sources said that tax evasion worth crores of rupees have been detected during the raids on Piyush Jain premises In Kanpur, Kannauj, Mumbai, and Gujarat. The Income Tax department raided the house, factory, office, cold store, and petrol pump of Piyush. Along with the I-T raid, on specific intelligence inputs, officers of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Ahmedabad initiated searches in Kanpur on Thursday on the factory premises of a pan masala manufacturer and a transporter.

He was involved in the transportation of goods under the cover of fake invoices, without generating e-way bills.