PM on cash recovery from Jharkhand Congress MP:  Every penny will have to be returned, this is Modi’s guarantee

SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA

Ranchi, Dec 8: Shocked with the recovery of nine almirahs full of slush money from the premises of Jharkhand Congress MP Dheeraj Sahu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Whatever has been looted from the public, every penny will have to be returned, this is Modi’s guarantee.”

Tweeting his reaction, Modi said the countrymen should look at these piles of currency notes and then listen to the honest ‘speeches’ of their leaders.

देशवासी इन नोटों के ढेर को देखें और फिर इनके नेताओं के ईमानदारी के 'भाषणों' को सुनें… 😂😂😂

जनता से जो लूटा है, उसकी पाई-पाई लौटानी पड़ेगी, यह मोदी की गारंटी है।

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❌❌❌💵 💵 💵❌❌❌ pic.twitter.com/O2pEA4QTOj

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 8, 2023

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Notably, the Income Tax department has been counting the notes recovered from Sahu’s premises in Jharkhand and Odisha for the last two days. Unconfirmed reports put the recovery so far at Rs 200 crore. The counting is said to be still on.

This is said to be the biggest raid by the Income tax department in Jharkhand and Odisha.

Dheeraj Sahu, a resident of Lohardaga in Jharkhand, is an old Congress leader who began his political career as a student leader in 1977. He is serving as a Rajya Sabha MP for the third time.

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Boudh Distilleries Private Limited (BDPL)

The IT department has been conducting raids at Boudh Distilleries Private Limited (BDPL) in Odisha and Jharkhand since Wednesday.

Boudh Distilleries Pvt Ltd., linked to Congress MP Dheeraj Sahu, is one of the biggest manufacturers and traders of country liquor in Odisha.

The IT is said to have recovered Rs 200 crore alone from the Satpura office of the liquor company, 30 km from Bolangir in Odisha.

Baldeo Sahu & Group of Companies is reported to be the partnership firm of Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd.

Newspaper reports say that the companies in question were concealing business activities to evade taxes.

Notably, searches were carried out at five different locations, including Ranchi and Lohardaga residences of Congress MP Dheeraj Sahu. Other than the Sushila Niketan residence on Radium Road in Ranchi, raids were also carried out in Odisha’s Bolangir, Sambalpur, and Kalahandi.

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According to an OdishaTV report, the IT personnel ran out of bags to carry the seized cash. Hence empty sacks were brought in to load the bundles of cash. As the machines stopped working on Wednesday, over 150 bags and sacks full of money were brought to the SBI branch in Bolangir where they were awaiting to be counted.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the matter.

Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) and former Jharkhand BJP chief Deepak Prakash tweeted that several other Congress MPs must be involved in such cases.

Sharing an image from the raid, Prakash said, “These are the pictures of the cash recovered in the raid from the house of only one Congress MP. Imagine how many more would be there who have been hollowing out the country for (the) last 70 years.”

“When we talk about the scam worth thousands of crores taking place in the Hemant (Chief Minister Hemant Sarma) government, it is not just a figure but a reality. A small example of which is again in front,” a translation from his post in Hindi suggested.