Jaipur: Days ahead of the Rajasthan Assembly Elections, the Income Tax department is conducting raids at Ganpati Plaza in Jaipur, related to black money. The Income Tax officials have broken into the highly sensitive lockers at Ganpati Plaza's Royale Safety Wallets locker as part of this investigation.
Lakhs of cash recovered, counting is underway
The operation is focused on uncovering information about the large-scale accumulation of undisclosed wealth, possibly in the form of gold, stored in highly sensitive lockers.
In the first phase, two lockers were cut open and lakhs of cash was recovered from one of the lockers. A sack full of currency notes was found in the second locker and counting is underway.
IT recovers Rs 1.25 crore cash and 1 kg gold
Earlier on October 17, the Income Tax officials on Tuesday recovered Rs 1.25 crore in cash and 1 kg of gold from three lockers of Jaipur's Ganpati Plaza
There are around 1100 lockers inside Ganpati Plaza in Jaipur which have been built underground of the plaza.
BJP alleges Rs 500 crore of black money kept in lockers
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Meena on October 13 alleged that around Rs 500 crore of black money and 50 kg of gold are kept in 100 private lockers in Jaipur and demanded police to open them.
He made the allegation after which he headed to an office of a firm, where he claimed that the lockers were located. Later in the day, the BJP leader claimed that teams of the Income Tax (I-T) Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reached the firm to examine the matter.
There is no immediate confirmation from the two agencies. Meena claimed that 50 of the lockers were functional and 10 of them belonged to some officials. Black money made from the government recruitment paper leak scam, the state information technology department scam, and the Jal Jeevan Mission scam are there in the lockers, he alleged.
He remained at the firm's office in a commercial building (Ganpati Plaza) on MI Road for nearly two hours and demanded that officials of the police and the income tax departments and other agencies intervene and open the lockers.
Paper leak case in Rajasthan
Prior to this, the BJP MP alleged that Congress leader Dinesh Khodaniya and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) leader Spardha Choudhary were involved in the appointment of Babulal Katara as a member of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC).
Katara had leaked question papers, he alleged. Babulal Katara has already been arrested and interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a paper leak case.
