IT raids against close aides of Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath continue for second day

The searches are being conducted at the Bhopal, Indore, and Delhi NCR premises of the aides, who are accused of tax evasion and hawala transactions during the ongoing poll season.

Close associates and aides of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath have been under scrutiny for weeks now | PTI

New Delhi/Bhopal: The Income-Tax Department raids against close aides of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and others continued on Monday, with search teams making seizures of documents and cash, officials said.

Officials said the searches, on charges of alleged tax evasion and hawala transactions during the ongoing poll season, are continuing at various premises in Bhopal, Indore, and in Delhi and the national capital region as tax sleuths are gathering details and evidences.

While there is no official word on the exact amount of cash seized, sources said that over Rs. 10 crore suspected cash has been seized till now.

At least half-a-dozen people, linked to alleged hawala dealer Paras Mal Lodha, are being questioned by the department.

The department had launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations on Sunday on people and associates linked to Nath.

Sources had told PTI that there is a “strong possibility” of the cash recovered during the operation being used as an election inducement to fund political campaigns and bribe voters in the poll-bound state and in Delhi.

A preliminary report of the raids was also shared by the department with the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Election Commission in Delhi.

A cash van with large-sized trunks has been sent by the department at a location in Bhopal to seize and collect the cash found during the raids, they said.

Those searched included Nath’s former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkar, former adviser Rajendra Miglani, Ashwani Sharma and executives linked to his brother-in-law’s firm Moser Bayer and his nephew Ratul Puri’s company.

Nath had reacted late Sunday to the development. “The situation about the I-T raids is not clear yet. It would be appropriate to speak on this after the situation is clear. But the entire country knows how the constitutional institutions were used and against whom they were used during the past five years,” he had said.

“These institutions were used to scare people. When they do not have anything to say on development and their work, they used this kind of tactics against their opponents,” the CM’s statement had said.