I-T heat faced more by opposition than by BJP members

NEW DELHI: With income tax searches on close aides of Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath over the past few days leading to allegations of political bias, a perusal of most “politically sensitive” operations in the last one year shows that more leaders of opposition parties have faced action.

Among the cases involving the ruling party at the Centre, Rs 1.8 crore was seized from a BJP candidate’s son in Arunachal Pradesh. The state police filed an FIR on the Election Commission’s directive. Usually, in such cases, seizure details are immediately shared with the tax department for further investigation. However, nothing is known yet on the action taken by the tax officials.

Former Karnataka CM B S Yeddyurappa was questioned by I-T investigation on November 25, 2017, in the context of Congress leader D K Shivakumar having produced some loose sheets alleging the senior BJP leader paid massive sums to his party’s central leadership in unaccounted cash.

Shivakumar himself was earlier searched and questioned by I-T officials in October 2017 for alleged tax evasion. The I-T department conducted searches at 64 locations on properties linked to Shivakumar, who was then energy minister of Karnataka and overseeing the stay of 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat at a resort near Bengaluru for fear of being poached by BJP. I-T officials had then claimed that Rs 10 crore in unaccounted cash was recovered during the raids.

There have been other cases of involvement of BJP leaders. In 2015, the Enforcement Directorate, while probing a money laundering case against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, found that a firm owned by then Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje’s son, Dushyant Singh, a BJP MP from Jhalawar-Baran, had received Rs 11.63 crore from an entity belonging to the former IPL commissioner.

In January, I-T officials raided premises of BJP leader Anil Goyal in Uttarakhand. In the last one year, the tax department has made a series of searches that have involved leaders of SP, BSP, RJD, TDP, JD(S), DMK and Congress. The department has said it is acting on information recieved and not on the basis of a select list of targets.

On Tuesday, I-T officials searched a cost accountant in Vijayawada and Rs 45 lakh in unaccounted cash was recovered. The accused said he was providing services to TDP MP Galla Jayadaev for election purposes. On April 3, I-T officials searched the premises of Congress leader M S Atmananda on suspicion of having unaccounted cash. This came a week after action against JD(S) leaders in Mandya, including residences of Karnataka irrigation minister C S Puttaraju.

On March 12, I-T officials searched premises of former UP-cadre IAS officer Netram, former principal secretary to ex-UP CM Mayawati. The tax department, which later attached properties worth Rs 225 crore of Netram and his associated entities, claimed it had diaries that had details of transactions and political links. Similar searches were conducted on people close to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in a mining lease case.

In October last year, the department had attached more than 17 properties worth over Rs 128 crore of family members of former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad. In 2017, AAP came under scrutiny after the I-T department served notice for undisclosed donations of Rs 13 crore in its books of accounts.