The counting of cash seized during Income Tax (I-T) raids on the properties linked to the Boudh Distillery Private Limited (BDPL), a liquor trader at Sudapada in Balangir district, has ended with a total reported amount of around Rs 305 crore.

With this, the total amount of recoveries from all country liquor manufacturing units in Odisha reached Rs 348 crore on Monday.

For the counting of this seized cash, said to be the ‘highest-ever’ in a single action conducted by any probe agency in the country, about 25 counting machines and 50 bank staffs were engaged.

The BDPL is a subsidiary of the Baldeo Sahu Infra Private Limited,  which has alleged connections with Jharkhand Congress Rajya Sabha member Dhiraj Sahu

The raids were first conducted on December 6 and the I-T officials stumbled upon huge amounts of cash stashed in the Sudpada distillery unit in Balangir district. The cash in 165 bags was taken to a nearby SBI branch for counting.

Later, huge amounts of cash were seized from the country liquor manufacturing unit at Dhanupali and the office of Baldeo Sahu and Group of Companies Ltd located in Sambalpur district. The cash was taken to the Sambalpur SBI branch in two vans.

While the counting at Titilagarh ended with Rs 11 crore, the value of notes seized from Baldeo Sahu & Sons was Rs 37.5 crore. The value of the total seized cash put together is believed to be around Rs 348 crore.

The I-T department is investigating to ascertain the source of such a huge amount and its owner. The two managers of Balangir brewery are currently being interrogated by I-T officials.

While an investigation is underway to find out the source and owner of the money, Income Tax DG Sanjay Bahadur, who was in Odisha during the raids, said the details regarding the raids would be shared by the I-T media cell in Delhi.