Indian currency retrieved by Income Tax officials from UP businessman Piyush Jains residence during a raid, in Kanpur district, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021.
Highlights
- Sitharaman said actions against perfume maker Piyush Jain in UP was based on actionable intelligence
- Sitharaman dismissed Opposition's charge that the raids were politically motivated
- Agencies have seized over Rs 197cr cash, 23kg gold & sandalwood oil during raids
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the nearly Rs 200 crore cash recovered from perfume maker Piyush Jain is not BJP money, as she defended the timing of the tax raids saying they were based on actionable intelligence. Speaking to reporters 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 Piyush 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.
READ MORE: I-T raids at Samajwadi Party MLC Pampi Jain's properties in tax evasion case
