Pawar says IT raids conducted because he raised his voice for Lakhimpur victims

Pawar also questioned whether people were allowed to voice their opinions in the country.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar said that the income tax department’s raids on deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s relatives were a form of retaliation because he compared the Lakhimpur Kheri incident to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Pawar earlier this week drew a parallel between the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, where eight people died, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. (PTI)

Pawar also questioned whether people were allowed to voice their opinions in the country. “The I-T raids were carried out because I likened the Lakhimpur Kheri violence to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Don't we have the right to air our views in democracy?,” Pawar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The income tax department’s teams conducted raids on businesses linked to the family members of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. It also raided some real estate developers on charges of alleged tax evasion. Premises linked to DB Realty, Shivalik, Jarandeshwar Sahkari Sugar Karkhana (Jarandeshwar SSK) and businesses linked to Ajit Pawar's sisters were raided, news agency PTI reported.

Pawar earlier this week drew a parallel between the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, where eight people died, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Pawar accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of troubling the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress coalition government. “The state government is not being given its rightful share in the central funds,” Pawar said.

Pawar said that the BJP must be removed from the path of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition. “In the recent by-polls of local bodies, the MVA allies, which contested separately, won 70 per cent of the seats. There is no doubt in my mind that if we fight together we will get better results. We have to now figure out how to contest the future elections,” Pawar said.

The veteran leader accused the BJP of being ‘anti-farmer’ and said it is indulging in ‘misuse of power.’ Pawar also lent support to the Maharashtra Bandh call given by the MVA government on October 11.