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Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, on Tuesday, 9 April, condemned the Income Tax Department raids at 52 locations against his close aides and others on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions.
He said “Rajnaitik drishti se jo karne ka prayas kiya ja raha hai usmein koi safal hone wala nahi hai. (The politically motivated efforts that are being made will not be successful).
A team of nearly 200 officials from I-T department and state police, on Sunday, swooped down on the premises at around 3 am and recovered undisclosed cash amounting to Rs 10-14 crore, officials said.
The two officers who are raided are – Praveen Kakkar, Kamal Nath’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD), and RK Miglani, the former adviser to the Madhya Pradesh chief minister.
The IT department official on Sunday night said that they have done jewellery evaluation at Kakkar’s house and that the raid will continue till Monday. “We are checking papers, it is within limit, there is no chance of arrests,” an IT official told ANI.
The two officers had already quit from their posts after the election code came into force last month.
The premises of some executives linked to Miglani’s brother-in-law’s firm Moser Baer, his nephew Ratul Puri in Noida and Kolkata-based businessman Paras Mal Lodha were also raided, the sources added.
Ratul Puri was grilled by the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi in connection with the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland helicopters purchase case last week, reported PTI.
The raids come just a week after the income tax officials raided the premises of the persons associated with the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka. The raids were condemned by Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and the Congress, who accused the BJP of harassing political opponents.
Senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma criticised the raids, saying that investigative agencies are being misused by the ruling BJP. Talking to news agency ANI, Sharma asked if any agency has gone to the BJP to investigate the amount of money spent.
Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also reacted to the events, saying that the IT Department was “doing its job.”
Congress leader Bhupendra Gupta accused the BJP-led central government of targeting Opposition leaders in a “political vendetta.”
Meanwhile, BJP’s National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya quipped, “Thieves are now having a complaint against the watchman.”
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram alleged that the government was planning Income Tax raids at his residence in a bid to cripple the Lok Sabha election campaign.
He said the people of the country were watching and would give a befitting reply in this election.
"The I-T department knows that we have nothing to hide. They and other agencies have searched our residences before and found nothing. The intention is to cripple the election campaign," he claimed.
(With inputs from ANI, NDTV ,CNN-News18.)
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