Bhubaneswar/Ranchi: The Income Tax department has recovered a total of over Rs 220 crore cash during raids in several places linked to the distillery group till Friday afternoon. Following this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the money looted from the public will have to be returned to them.
The PM took to X and wrote, "The countrymen should look at the pile of these notes and then listen to the honest 'speeches' of their leaders...whatever has been looted from the public, every penny have to be returned, this is Modi's guarantee". With his post, the Prime minister targeted some political leaders of Odisha and Jharkhand, who have linked with the liquor firm. The Prime Minister also attached a photo of a Hindi newspaper in which the cash recovered by the IT department was shown stacked.
The IT department continued its raids on Friday and found 156 bags of cash during the search at Sudapada in Bolangir district for the third consecutive day in places linked to an Odisha-based distillery group on charges of tax evasion, officials said. From the bags, Rs 20 crore were counted till now, taking the total amount so far recovered to Rs 220 crore.
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देशवासी इन नोटों के ढेर को देखें और फिर इनके नेताओं के ईमानदारी के 'भाषणों' को सुनें... 😂😂😂
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 8, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
जनता से जो लूटा है, उसकी पाई-पाई लौटानी पड़ेगी, यह मोदी की गारंटी है।
❌❌❌💵 💵 💵❌❌❌ pic.twitter.com/O2pEA4QTOj
">देशवासी इन नोटों के ढेर को देखें और फिर इनके नेताओं के ईमानदारी के 'भाषणों' को सुनें... 😂😂😂
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 8, 2023
जनता से जो लूटा है, उसकी पाई-पाई लौटानी पड़ेगी, यह मोदी की गारंटी है।
❌❌❌💵 💵 💵❌❌❌ pic.twitter.com/O2pEA4QTOjदेशवासी इन नोटों के ढेर को देखें और फिर इनके नेताओं के ईमानदारी के 'भाषणों' को सुनें... 😂😂😂
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 8, 2023
जनता से जो लूटा है, उसकी पाई-पाई लौटानी पड़ेगी, यह मोदी की गारंटी है।
❌❌❌💵 💵 💵❌❌❌ pic.twitter.com/O2pEA4QTOj
"Of the 156 bags, only 6/7 were counted and the amount found was Rs 20 crore," an official said. The raids were carried out at Sambalpur, Bolangir, Titilagarh, Boudh, Sundargarh, Rourkela and Bhubaneswar", said the official.
On the other hand, the state opposition in Odisha BJP held a press conference and demanded a CBI probe into the case and sought clarification from the ruling BJD in Odisha. BJP spokesperson Manoj Mohapatra also showed photographs of a woman minister from Odisha's western region, in which she was found sharing dais with one of the liquor traders on whose premises the I-T raids are being conducted.
The BJP spokesperson claimed that this veracity of tax evasion could not be possible without the local leaders' support and the state government. He asked, "What were Odisha's excise department, vigilance wing, intelligence wing and economic offence wing doing?" BJD MLA Satyanarayan Pradhan, however, rejected the allegation of the BJP and claimed that Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik hates corruption and believes in transparency.
"The people found guilty will certainly be punished as our CM always says that law will take its own course," Pradhan said. Around Rs 200 crore cash was seized on Thursday during raids at the Bolangir office of Baldeo Sahu & Group of Companies, a major country liquor manufacturer in western Odisha. The raids were conducted at some houses, offices, and distillery at Sargipali in Sundargarh city on Wednesday. The IT team also searched the corporate office of Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd at Palasapalli in Bhubaneswar, the houses of some company officials, the company's factory and office in Boudh and the Ranisati Rice Mill.
Former IT commissioner Sarat Chandra Dash said that this could be the largest cash seizure by the income tax department in Odisha so far. "I have never come across recovery such a huge amount of cash in the state," Dash said. IT department DG Sanjay Bahadur has reached Bhubaneswar on Thursday and monitoring the entire operations. No one was arrested in this connection.
