Income Tax Raids in Odisha Lead to Recovery of Over Rs 200 Crore

“Unaccounted” Cash Worth Rs 250 Crore Expected to be Recovered in Income Tax Raids in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The income-tax department is conducting searches against a distillery group based in Odisha and entities associated with it, with the expectation of recovering around Rs 250 crore in “unaccounted” cash, according to official sources on Friday.

The raids, which were launched against Boudh Distillery Private Limited on Wednesday, are still ongoing, and more than Rs 200 crore in cash has been recovered so far. The sources estimate that the total recovery could reach Rs 250 crore.

To facilitate the counting process, the tax department has deployed three dozen counting machines. However, due to their limited capacity, the counting is progressing slowly, the sources added.

During the searches, premises linked to Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, a Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, were also covered, as per the sources. However, an email sent by PTI to the distillery group on Thursday received no response.

Officials revealed that Rs 200 crore in cash, hidden in almirahs, was recovered from a premises of the distillery group in Balangir district, while the remaining amount was found in other locations such as Sambalpur and Sundargarh in Odisha, Bokaro and Ranchi in Jharkhand, and Kolkata.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on X, shared a news report about the I-T department’s recovery of Rs 200 crore in cash from various locations linked to Sahu’s business group, as he criticized the opposition party.

When PTI attempted to contact MP Sahu for a comment on the I-T department’s action, his staff claimed their inability to reach him.

The sources informed that the tax authorities initiated the raids based on information regarding a significant amount of cash being remitted by liquor distributors, sellers, and business groups.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)