agencies
Defending the timing of the tax raids in Uttar Pradesh, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the nearly Rs 200 crore cash recovered from perfume maker Peeyush Jain is not BJP money. She said the raid were based on actionable intelligence.
Speaking to media after GST Council meeting, she said law enforcing agencies act on actionable intelligence in conducting raids.
“It is not BJP money,” she said when asked about opposition charge that the Rs 197.49 crore cash recovered from perfume maker Peeyush Jain in UP’s Kannauj was her party’s money and the tax authorities had raided the person by “mistake” and are now raiding the other Jain they had originally wanted to target.
She said the former chief minister Akhliesh Yadav is “shaken” by the raids, as she sought to defend the action.
“How do you know whose money is it? Are you his partner? Because only partners know whose money is kept,” she said.
Dismissing opposition charge that the raids were politically motivated, she asked if the raiding parties come empty handed.
Recovery of money shows there was actionable intelligence, she said, adding the raids happening on Friday too were based on such inputs.
A political war has erupted in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh in the backdrop of I-T raids on Samajwadi Party leader Pushpraj Jain in Kannauj.
While the Samajwadi Party is accusing the ruling BJP of “misusing central agencies”, the saffron party leaders are using the development to take swipes at Akhilesh Yadav.
Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Ayodhya to “take stock of the ongoing work at the Ram Temple”, took pot shots and targeted Akhilesh Yadav at his rally later.
“Can ‘bua-babua’ (Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav) take UP forward? During their rule they stashed black money. Today the ‘durgandh’ (bad smell) of Samajwadi Party ‘ittra’ (perfume) is spreading. Today when raids are going on, they (SP) are getting worried,” Shah said addressing the public rally in Ayodhya.
He also asked people whether the enforcement agencies should not conduct raids on corrupt people who have black money.