Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey on December 9, 2023 hit out at the Congress party over income tax raids at its MP Dhiraj Sahu’s premises in Jharkhand, Bengal and Odisha, saying that the grand old party has made the entire economy of this country “hollow”.
“The raid has been going on for the last three days, he is a senior Congress MP only. As per the information I had till morning, Rs 290 crore cash has been counted, 8 lockers are yet to open, and 10 rooms are yet to open. If this number goes upto Rs 500 crores, I won’t be surprised. Rs 500 crores in cash only, then the property could be of Rs 1000 crores…some documents are recovered. Congress has made the entire economy of this country hollow…” the BJP MP said.
In what is likely India’s biggest cash recovery in income tax raids, at least Rs 200 crore in hard cash has been recovered so far during raids in three States since yesterday. The Odisha-based liquor distillery group is linked to Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu.
The counting of cash, however, is still going on, as per the IT official. Dubey also claimed that the recovered money does not belong to one person only and ‘suspected’ that it could be possessed by the outgoing CM of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, the Jharkhand government or anyone else.
“The recovered money does not belong to one person alone. In the Bharat Jodo Yatra, you might have seen how he (Dhiraj Sahu) participated. Several photos went viral with Rahul Gandhi. This money can belong to Bhupesh Baghel (the former CM of Chhattisgarh) or can belong to the Jharkhand government, but as the PM said yesterday, ‘every penny will be counted’ and all the corrupt leaders of Congress will go behind bars,” he added.
The raids were conducted at Boudh Distilleries Private Limited (BDPL) and entities linked to it in Odisha and Jharkhand.
Baldev Sahu Infra Pvt Ltd., which is a group company of Boudh Distilleries covered in the search, is linked to Dhiraj Sahu.
The raids were conducted at Bolangir and Sambalpur in Odisha and Ranchi and Lohardaga in Jharkhand, according to Income Tax officials.
On Saturday, BJP workers staged a protest against Congress MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu over the recovery of unaccounted money worth Rs 200 crore from him during the Income Tax raids.
