'Unaccounted Cash' Seized From 2 Congress Lawmakers in India’s Jharkhand

The Income Tax department raided two Congress Party lawmakers from Jharkhand on November 4. The party’s state spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan alleged that the tax department's move was part of an operation to destabilize governments in non-BJP ruled states, while BJP politician Babulal Marandi rejected the accusation.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy-making body for the Income Tax department, seized “unaccounted” transactions and investment worth over INR 1 billion ($12.2 million) from two state lawmakers of Congress in Jharkhand, their alleged associated and linked coal and iron ore businesses.

The two Congress legislators have been identified as Kumar Jaimangal (Anup Singh), a legislator who holds Bermo's state assembly seat, and Pradip Yadav, who represents Poriyahat assembly.

According to media reports citing the CBDT statement released on Tuesday, the “unaccounted cash” was seized after raids were conducted at 50 premises in Ranchi, Godda, Bermo, Dumka, Jamshedur and Cahibasa, cities in Jharkhand, Patna in Bihar, Gurugram in Haryana and Kolkata in West Bengal, on November 4.

The CBDT statement said the action was taken against "few business groups engaged in coal trading/transportation, execution of civil contracts, extraction of iron ore and production of sponge iron”.

“The searches also led to the seizure of large number of incriminating documents and digital evidences,” the statement further read.

The policymaking body of the tax department also alleged that a preliminary analysis of the evidence indicates that these groups have resorted to various modus-operandi of tax evasion including the inflation of expenses, transactions of loans in cash, payments/receipts in cash and the suppression of production.

The CBDT also found that investments had been made in real estate, the source of which could not be fully explained, and one of the groups engaged in civil contracts was “not” maintaining regular books of account.