I-T raids in Madhya Pradesh: Lobbyist more in the soup for 'tiger trophy' than 'cash'

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh forest department on Tuesday confiscated six wildlife articles including a tiger, sambar trophies and a hide of spotted deer from the residential premises of lobbyist Ashwini Sharma 48 hours after he was raided by I-T department along with close aides of chief minister Kamal Nath. He will be booked under various sections of the wildlife protection act (WPA) if he fails to produce documents for these articles.

Sources say, Income tax sleuths wanted a central agency to book him under WPA so that he could be arrested and taken of transit to Delhi for further investigations in the alleged ‘Hawala’ transactions but later it was decided that the case be handed over to local forest department.

CCF Bhopal S P S Tiwari told TOI that the articles have been seized from Sharma’s flat at Platinum Plaza in the state capital and he has been asked to produce relevant documents. “If he fails to show us any legal documents required to possess these wildlife articles, actions will be taken under WPA,” he said.

State police, who had no clue to the pre-dawn raids, and CRPF came face to face at some locations that were being searched. On Monday night there was a face-off between the CRPF team and local police when I-T sleuths over Sharma’s detention. Paramilitary personnel were trying to stop state cops from entering any of these locations.

A CRPF personnel allegedly shoved the TI of TT Nagar police station during the raid, say sources, forcing senior police officers to intervene. The matter was also taken up at a higher level. DGP V K Singh has sent an officials communication to the chief secretary S R Mohanty on the matter.

Almost 48 hours after a massive crackdown on chief minister Kamal Nath’s aides and two others in Madhya Pradesh, income tax department officials had on Monday said they have detected a well-organised racket involving unaccounted cash worth around Rs 281 crore. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said the department has also detected a trail of Rs 20 crore suspect cash allegedly being moved through Hawala to the "headquarters of a major political party in Delhi".

It said the money was moved from the residence of a senior functionary in New Delhi.

CBDT said it has recovered Rs 14.6 crore of "unaccounted" cash and seized diaries and computer files of suspect payments in raids against Kamal Nath's aides.

“Rs 10.33 crores out of the total Rs 14.6 crore of unaccounted cash, were confiscated from a flat owned by Sharma’s cousin. Whereas 252 bottles of liquor, few arms and wildlife articles were found at Sharma’s flat," CBDT officials say.

The department had on Sunday launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations of people and associates linked to Nath. Those searched included Nath's former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pravin Kakkar, former adviser Rajendra Miglani, Ashwani Sharma and executives linked to his brother-in-law's firm Moser Bayer and a company of his nephew Ratul Puri.