Dhiraj Sahu raids: Total cash haul reaches ₹318 crore; counting on

Dhiraj Sahu raids: The counting of cash is taking place at the main branch of the State Bank of India in Odisha's Bolangir.

The amount of cash recovered in income tax raids at premises linked to Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Sahu has reached ₹318 crore. In the biggest-ever recovery of cash, the amount is expected to increase as counting for several bags full of cash is still going on in Odisha.

The raid are being carried out at premises linked to Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu.

The counting of cash is taking place at the main branch of the State Bank of India in Odisha's Bolangir. All the cash will be counted by midnight, said SBI officials.

Earlier today, SBI's regional manager Bhagat Behera said they had received 176 bags and 140 of them were counted. 50 bank officials have been counting cash using 25 machines.

The marathon raids against Boudh Distillery Private Limited, its promoters and others entered the fifth day on Sunday. The raids were launched on December 6 by the income tax department on charges of tax evasion and "off-the-book" transactions.

Per PTI, the department believes the cache of currency came from cash sales of country liquor.

The previous highest record of cash recovery was held by a Kanpur-based businessman from whom cash amounting to ₹257 crore had been recovered in 2019.

In 2018, the department had seized ₹163 crore in Tamil Nadu.

The income tax department will soon summon the main promoters of the company and record their statements.

Premises linked to Dhiraj Sahu in Ranchi and other places were also searched. It isn't, however, clear what was recovered from the MP's house.

The BJP, meanwhile, has questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's silence over the matter.

"From Rahul Gandhi's close friend and Rajya Sabha MP Dheeraj Sahu's offices, around ₹200 crore was seized by I-T...I want to ask Rahul Gandhi, why haven't you posted anything about this on social media? Why haven't you spoken anything about this? Because Congress always supports corruption," Union minister G Kishan Reddy said on Sunday.

The Congress has distanced itself from the MP but has sought a clarification from him.

"Since he is Congress MP, he should make an official statement about how such a big amount of money came to him," Jharkhand Congress chief Avinash Pandey said.

With inputs from PTI, Debabrat Mohanty