Indian currency recovered by Income Tax officials from the residence of UP businessman Piyush Jain during a raid in Kanpur district, Thursday, December 23, 2021.
Highlight
- Sitharaman said actionable action against perfume maker Piyush Jain in UP was based on intelligence
- Sitharaman refutes opposition’s allegation that the raids were politically motivated
- Agencies have seized Rs 197 crore in cash, 23 kg of gold and sandalwood oil during the raids.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said cash worth nearly Rs 200 crore recovered from perfume maker Piyush Jain is not BJP money, as she defended the timing of the tax raids, saying they were based on actionable intelligence. Speaking to reporters after the GST Council meeting, he said law enforcing agencies work on actionable intelligence in conducting raids.
Asked about the opposition’s allegation that “this is not BJP’s money,” he said, the cash worth Rs 197.49 crore recovered from perfume maker Piyush Jain in UP’s Kannauj was his party’s money and tax officials “mistake” that. The person was raided and now raiding. They originally wanted to target another Jain.
He said former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was shocked by the raids as he had sought to defend the action. “How do you know whose money it is? Are you his partner? Because only the partner knows whose money is kept,” she said.
Rejecting the opposition’s charge that the raids were politically motivated, he asked whether the raiding parties came up empty handed. The recovery of money showed that there was actionable intelligence, he said, adding that the raids on Friday were also based on similar inputs.
Read more: IT raids on properties of Samajwadi Party MLC Pumpi Jain in tax evasion case
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