Odisha Income Tax raids: I-T team finishes search at Bolangir Sudapada country-liquor unit after six days

Following marathon searches for six days, the Income Tax team finally left the country-liquor manufacturing unit at Sudapada in Bolangir on Tuesday.

The I-T team which had made the liquor manufacturing factory its temporary base, has reportedly taken two managers of the factory—Bunty and Rajesh to an undisclosed location for questioning.

Meanwhile, the State Bank of India (SBI), the help of which was sought by the I-T department to count the money seized from the liquor manufacturers, is reportedly finding it hard to deposit all the seized cash.

The currency chest at SBI’s Bolangir main branch has space to stock cash of Rs 350 crore for its every day banking transactions. However, only seized cash from multiple places in Bolangir district has gone up to Rs 330 crore creating difficulty in storing it.

The bank officials have reportedly informed their seniors and the RBI about the situation as the I-T raids are continuing even today. Sources said, a large amount of cash and jewellery has also been seized from Titilagarh on Monday night.

On the other hand, politics have heated up over the seizure of cash from liquor manufacturers. Targeting the BJD and Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the liquor business and tax evasion have been running as a result of a nexus between the BJD and Congress.

The members of the Mahila Morcha of BJP demonstrated at the Master Canteen Square in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday by burning an effigy of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Sahu. They demanded a CBI probe into his links with the liquor traders and the subsequent seizure of cash.

It is pertinent to mention here that cash worth Rs 284 crore was seized from a country-liquor manufacturer at Sudapada in Bolangir, is allegedly linked to Jharkhand MP Dhiraj Sahu and his associates.