Income Tax Department On Search Of UP Samajwadi Party MLA Pushpraj Jain
- Days after a Uttar Pradesh businessman raided a large sum of money but raised questions about whether he had secured his target, Pushpraj ‘Pampi’ Jain of the opposition Samajwadi Party found himself searched by authorities this morning.
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About 50 sites are being searched by the Tax Department in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai who have linked to a business owner who owns perfumes, petrol pumps and cold stores and introduced ‘Samajwadi Party perfume’ ahead of the UP elections early next year.
Recommended read: IT Dept Raid: 150 cr and still counting at Kanpur Businessman’s House
The opposition party responded to the raid on Twitter: “After the last major failure, this time the last BJP IT assistant (Tax Department) finally stormed the SP MLC Shri Pushp Raj Jain and other spice traders in Kannauj. “Shocked BJP is common in UP elections. People look at everything, they will respond by vote.”
The raid comes amid a fog of speculation surrounding the vast Kanpur and Kannauj area of another businessman Piyush Jain, which resulted in the discovery of ₹ 196 crore and 23 kg of gold.
Coming into the run-up to the by-elections, the raids infiltrated political talks, in which the BJP and the Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav accused each other of supporting the arrested perfume trader.
BJP revealed that it was Piyush Jain who recently introduced the perfume to Samajwadi. Taking a swipe at the opposition party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Kanpur on Wednesday, “Boxes full of notes are out. The people of Kanpur understand business and trade very well and are good in it.
In response, Mr Yadav said the BJP mixed businessman Piyush Jain with Pushpraj Jain of the Samajwadi Party, who introduced perfumes named after the party. Denying any contact with Piyush Jain, he said BJP was “accidentally attacked by its businessmen”.
After Mr Yadav’s response, Congress leader P Chidambaram took to Twitter and wondered if it was “a joke of mistakes”. “I think the comedy will not end here. As some allegations are traded between BJP and SP, there will be more characters,” he said.
Pushpraj Jain had nothing to do with Piyush Jain and was saddened to down level of politics. “It is under the belt to use my name in connection with the raid.”. Asked about Mr Chidambaram’s tweet, Jain said, “You may be right, these criminals may have been planned for me.”
Sources from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), however, included erroneous ID theory. They said they had received some comments about the alleged tax evasion by the Shikhar Pan Masala party. The investigation led them to transport company Ganapati Road Carriers and Piyush Jain’s Odochem Industries, sources said.
Source- NDTV
