BJP, SP trade charges amid income tax raids in UP

Vibha Sharma

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 31

A massive war of words erupted today in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh following income tax raids on Samajwadi Party legislator and perfume maker Pushpraj Jain in Kannauj.

While the Samajwadi Party is accusing the ruling BJP of “misusing” Central agencies, saffron party leaders are using the development to take a swipe at Akhilesh Yadav, their main rival in the state. Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Ayodhya to take stock of the ongoing work at Ram Temple, said the stench of the Samajwadi perfume had spread all over UP. “They (SP) are getting worried over the raids,” Shah said addressing a public rally. Throwing a question at the audience, he asked: “Do you have any issues if people with black money are being raided?”

Seized Rs 200 crore not bjp’s, says FM

It is not BJP’s money. How do they (Opposition) know whose money is it? Are they partners (with him)? Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister

Akhilesh Yadav had recently launched a perfume called “Samajwadi Itra” prepared by MLC Pushpraj Jain, whose premises were raided today. Completely backing Pushpraj Jain, the Samajwadi Party is claiming that the BJP has gone after the “real target” after “mistakenly” raiding “their own man” Piyush Jain a couple of days ago.

“Today’s raids were done out of frustration to set right the earlier mistake, wherein a BJP supporter (Piyush) was mistaken for an SP man,” said Akhilesh, dubbing the action as an “open misuse of Central agencies by a scared BJP”. However, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the nearly Rs 200- crore cash recovered from Piyush was not BJP money. She also defended the timing of the tax raids, saying law-enforcing agencies act on actionable intelligence. “It is not BJP money,” she told reporters when confronted with the allegation that the Rs 197.49-crore cash recovered from Piyush was BJP money and the tax authorities had raided him by “mistake” and were now targeting Pushpraj, their “original target”.

She rejected the Opposition charge that the wrong Jain was raided, saying, “How do they know whose money is it? Are they partners (with him)?… Only if you are running a business in partnership with someone would you know.”

Dismissing the charge of the raids being “politically motivated”, she asked if the raiding parties returned empty-handed.

The Income Tax Department today raided multiple premises linked to perfume traders and some other businesses in Uttar Pradesh as part of a tax-evasion investigation.

Political war hots UP

• I-T Department on Friday raided multiple premises linked to perfume traders, including SP MLC Pushpraj Jain, in UP as part of a tax-evasion investigation.
• Backing Pushpraj, the SP claimed that the BJP had gone after the “real target” after “mistakenly raiding their own man” Piyush Jain a couple of days ago.