I-T officials return to Delhi after conducting searches at Bishnoi’s residence

Hisar, July 26

Income Tax Department officials returned to Delhi after conducting searches at the Sector 15 residence of Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi for four consecutive days.

Searches had also been conducted by the I-T Department at the sitting legislator’s Adampur residence here, which concluded earlier.

The I-T officials had on Tuesday carried out simultaneous searches on the residential premises of Bishnoi in Hisar and Adampur, Gurgaon and Delhi.

The officials were looking for documents and evidence in connection with a tax evasion probe linked to Bishnoi, son of former Haryana Chief Minister late Bhajan Lal, they said.

According to official sources, the I-T team returned to Delhi on Friday afternoon. Bishnoi’s son Bhavya too was asked to accompany the team.

The I-T officials did not speak to the media here and it remained unclear whether there was anything incriminating found during the searches.

Bishnoi, the Congress MLA from Adampur, and his wife Renuka Bishnoi, who too is a legislator from Hansi, however, were not present during the searches.

Kuldeep and Renuka were stated to be in Delhi. Bhavya, who had unsuccessfully contested the recent Lok Sabha election from Hisar, had been staying at Hisar with his grandmother Jasma Devi.

Renuka had earlier reacted to the I-T searches in a Facebook post, asserting they have been doing “clean politics”.

Kuldeep and Renuka had won their seats in 2014 as Haryana Janhit Congress candidates, but they merged their party with the Congress in 2016.

On I-T Department searches at Bishnoi’s residential premises in Hisar for the fourth day, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, who is a legislator from Kaithal, alleged that “Raid Raj” has become synonym of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“Raid Raj has become synonym of BJP. The illegal raid at Kuldeep Bishnoi’s residence which has been going on for the past three days is a living example of this. BJP government cannot suppress the voice of Congress leaders. The entire party stands behind Kuldeep Bishnoi,” he tweeted. PTI