IT Raids recover above ₹200 Crore in Odisha; Congress MP's premises on the list

In a significant development, the income-tax department's ongoing searches on Odisha-based Boudh Distillery Private Limited and affiliated entities are expected to recover approximately ₹250 crore in "unaccounted" cash, according to official sources. The raids, initiated on Wednesday, have so far resulted in the retrieval of over ₹200 crore, with counting ongoing at a slow pace due to the limited capacity of deployed machines.

Sources indicate that three dozen counting machines have been put into operation, and the counting process is progressing slowly. The searches, encompassing locations in Odisha, Jharkhand, and Kolkata, also extended to premises associated with Congress's Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, Dhiraj Prasad Sahu.

Cash amounting to ₹200 crore was discovered in almirahs at a Balangir district facility of the distillery group, while the remainder was found in other locations like Sambalpur and Sundargarh in Odisha, as well as Bokaro and Ranchi in Jharkhand. An email inquiry to the distillery group on Thursday remained unanswered.

PM Narendra Modi, in a social media post, highlighted a news report on the recovery of ₹200 crore in cash linked to Sahu's business group, criticizing the opposition party. Modi emphasized that every penny looted from the people must be returned.

"Countrymen should look at these piles of currency notes and then hear the addresses of its (Congress) leaders on honesty. Every penny looted from people will have to be returned. This is Modi's guarantee," he said in a post with several emojis.

Despite attempts to seek a comment from Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, his staff expressed their inability to get a response when contacted by the media. Officials noted that the income-tax department acted on "inputs" regarding substantial cash transactions within the liquor distribution and business sectors, leading to the initiation of the raids.