Officials of the Income Tax (IT) Department on Tuesday conducted a raid at the office and residence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Vaswani in Bhopal. At least 12 officials conducted raids at his residence, office and hotel in Bhopal at around 7 am.
A case of disproportionate assets has come up against Vaswani and the officials are also probing money laundering case against him post the November 8 demonetization drive.
Vaswani, who is also the chairman of co-operative bank, had a few months ago bought large acres of land. As of now, the tax authorities are investigating the case and the proceedings are on. Raids are being carried out across the country by the Income Tax Department in the wake of the burgeoning fake currency racket post demonetisation.
The searches were carried out at the residence and hotels of BJP leader and former chairman of Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sahakari Awas Sangh Sushil Vaswani in Bairagarh on the outskirts of Bhopal. Vaswani was chairman of Mahanagar Cooperative bank for more than a decade while his wife Kiran is the current chairperson of the bank that has several influential persons as directors.
The raids followed reports that the cooperative leader had allegedly laundered money after the demonetization decision on November 8. The leader owns three hotels in the city. He was chairman of the housing cooperative federation for five years and enjoyed minister of state status for five years. During the raids, the leader, however, claimed that no illegal money was found from his house, and described as rumours the talk that a lot of currency and weapons were found.
Though I-T officials did not provide any details, the searches are believed to be part of the ongoing cash clean up drive in the wake of demonetisation. Reports suggested that no illegal money was found from his house.
The Bairagarh residence of Sushil Vaswani was among the places raided. Documents relating to movable and immovable assets are being scrutinised. Vaswani's younger sibling's wife is a corporator here. The leader deposited large amounts in banks in the wake of demonetisation.