Odisha cash haul: Role of hawala operators, shell companies to be probed

With the highestever cash seizure of Rs 351 crore by income tax sleuths during raids against a distillery company owned by a Congress MPs family the role of hawala operators and shell companies that were allegedly used to channel the illicit funds has come under the scanner official sources said MondayAn interim report on the action has also been sent by the field investigation wing of the income tax department to the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT in Delhi the administrative body for the departmentThe searches that began against the Bhubaneswarheadquartered Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd BDPL are continuing at about seven locations on Monday the sixth day after they were launched by the taxman on December 6 on charges of alleged tax evasion and out of book transactionsThe searches are expected to be called off soon after the signing of some panchnamas and recording of statements they saidThe IT department has effected the countrys highestevery cash seizure of Rs 351 crore by any agency in a single operation after the fiveday counting ended on SundayAs many as 3034 premises in Odisha Jharkhand and West Bengal were searched the sources saidAbout 3 kg of gold jewellery was also seized by the department they saidA number of hawala operators working in these three states and the incorporation of some shell or dubious companies are under the scanner of the department after documents indicating their roles were recovered during these searches and recovery of the huge cash the sources saidThe premises of the Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand Dhiraj Prasad Sahu in Ranchi and other places were also covered during the searches by the department The company and Sahu did not respond to PTIs queries regarding the action being carried out against themBJP MPs led by party chief J P Nadda on Monday held a protest near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Parliament Complex alleging the cash seized during the raids proved that the Congress was neckdeep in corruptionThis is just the tip of the iceberg Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will have to answer whose money it is and how it was lootediquest Nadda saidBJP members in Lok Sabha also raised the issue in the House on MondayThe Congress has distanced itself from the MP claiming that the party has nothing to do with his businessThe Indian National Congress is in no way connected with the businesses of Dheeraj Sahu MP Only he can explain and should explain how huge amounts of cash have been reportedly unearthed by the incometax authorities from his properties AICC general secretary Communications Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X last weekTargeting the opposition parties Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said it is now clear that their propaganda about probe agencies being misused was driven by the fear that their corruption will be exposedIn a statement the senior BJP leader questioned the silence of INDIA bloc leaders saying he could understand why the Congress is keeping mum but wondered why parties like the TMC DMK JDU and the RJD were doing the sameThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever