281 crore cash collection racket found after MP CM aide raid: I-T dept

New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday said that searches by the income tax (I-T) department have detected “widespread and well-organized racket” of a collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore through persons involved in business, politics and public services.

The statement referred to searches that started Sunday and continued into Monday, of several key associates and aides of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath.

A portion of the cash had been transferred to the headquarters of “a major political party in Delhi”, and this included Rs. 20 crore moved through hawala (illegal transaction) channels from the residence of a senior functionary on Delhi’s Tughlak Road, it added.

According to a statement from the Income Tax department, the seized items included tiger skins, unaccounted cash amounting to Rs. 14.6 crore, 252 bottles of liquor and a few firearms. Meticulous records of collection and cash disbursement in the form of handwritten diaries, computer files and excel sheets corroborate the above findings, it added.

Income Tax officials had raided the residences of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s former private secretary Praveen Kakkar in Indore and former advisor Rajendra Kumar Miglani in Delhi in connection with an alleged hawala case on Sunday morning.

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