The Income Tax Department on Sunday conducted pre-dawn searches on at least 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh against people linked to Chief Minister Kamal Nath on charges of alleged tax evasion, triggering allegations of political vendetta against Opposition leaders by the Congress.
A team of about 200 I-T Department and police officers simultaneously reached these premises around 3 am and an undisclosed amount of cash was recovered during the searches, officials said, adding the raids were linked to suspected movement of hawala money in the run up to the Parliamentary polls and tax evasion, they said.
Locations in Indore, Bhopal and Green Park in the national Capital were raided and premises searched included Nath’s former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkad, former adviser Rajendra Miglani and executives linked to his brother-in-law’s firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puri’s company, they said.
Both Kakkar and Miglani resigned from their posts just before the Lok Sabha polls were declared.
In Indore, the raids were conducted by a team of officials from Delhi at Kakkad’s residence in Vijay Nagar area and other places associated with him, sources said.
Searches were also conducted at Kakkad’s house in Bhopal’s Nadir Colony and two other locations in the State capital. Documents seized during the searches were being scrutinised.
The searches were also conducted against Kolkata- based businessman Paras Mal Lodha, sources said.
Kakkad, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed OSD to Nath after the Congress-led Government came to power in the State in 2018.
He earlier served as OSD to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA regime. Bhuria is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha poll from Ratlam-Jhabua seat in MP.
Kakkad’s family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality. Ratul Puri was last week grilled by the Enforcement Directorate in the national capital in connection with the Rs 3,6000 crore AgustaWestland helicopter scam.
Reacting to the raids, MP Congress’ media cell vice president Bhupendra Gupta, also a former OSD to Nath, said, “The BJP Government has been targeting Opposition leaders across the country due to political enmity. Due to such act of political vendetta, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (N Chandrababu Naidu) and DMK leader MK Stalin had to stage protest against the Centre.”
However, the BJP hit back, saying thieves were
now having a complaint against the ‘watchman’.
“Black money worth crores was recovered during the Income Tax department’s raid at the house of private secretary of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. This has made one thing clear that those who are thieves have a complaint against the watchman,” BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said.
Last month, the tax department searched premises of aides of a JD(S) Minister in Karnataka, leading to the State Government terming the raids as politically motivated.
Likewise, searches were conducted at the premises of senior DMK leader Duraimurugan in Vellore district over suspected use of unaccounted money for electioneering and Rs 10 lakh of alleged “excess” cash was seized.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the past few days have witnessed several cases where the Election Commission and the revenue authorities, both separately and acting jointly, were trying to curb the use of black money in elections.
“These actions have been particularly significant in States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, North-East and Madhya Pradesh. The Election Commission and the Income-tax authorities work in close tandem during elections. In many cases, monies have been coming from Government contractors and beneficiaries,” Jaitley said.
In one State, contractors passed on monies to engineers who were to distribute it to the candidates, he said.
“In another State, which only four months ago elected a new Government, 50,000 Government transfers became a revenue generating exercise. Reports have also indicated that an amount of about Rs 1,500 crore has already been seized,” Jaitley added.