Simultaneous Income Tax raids across 25 premises located in Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal allegedly linked to Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, Deepak Sahu, have led to the recovery of Rs 200 crore in “unaccounted” cash so far. The amount is tipped to rise by at least Rs 50 crore as the searches and recovery continue at the premises.

“Around Rs 200 crore (has been recovered) so far but counting is still on, so the amount will be more. Over 25 premises were searched in Odisha and Jharkhand. In Odisha, some of the areas are in the Naxal territory, so those are sensitive zones,” news agencies cited Income Tax sources as saying.

The recovery was made following I-T searches against an Odisha-based distillery group and entities linked to it, official sources said on Friday. The raids, initiated against the Boudh Distillery Private Limited on Wednesday, are still underway. A PTI report citing sources said the total recoveries could rise to around Rs 250 crore.

As per the report, the counting of notes is progressing at a slow pace due to the limited capacity of the counting machines. As many as 36 counting machines have been deployed by the tax department for the purpose.

While the raids continued at Boudh Distillery Private Limited in Odisha, the business premises linked to the Congress MP where the said cash was recovered, searches were also underway in Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Rourkela and Bhubaneswar in Odisha, Kolkata in West Bengal and Bokaro and Ranchi in Jharkhand.

Neeraj Sinha, spokesperson of the Jharkhand unit of Congress, said that transactions in the businesses that Dheeraj Prasad Sahu is involved in have cash dealings. ” “Dheeraj Prasad Sahu’s business is very old, and his wealth did not grow overnight like Adani’s. Almost all the country liquor manufacturing and selling in Odisha is owned by Dheeraj Sahu, where the transactions are in cash. They are into hospitality, transport, fisheries, liquor and various other businesses. Also, the I-T department has not communicated anything to Dheeraj Sahu as far as we have been informed,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

PM Modi tags report, tweets with emojis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took note of a media report on the development and said that every penny looted from the people of the country will have to be returned. “Countrymen should look at these piles of currency notes and then hear the addresses of its (Congress) leaders on honesty. Every penny looted from people will have to be returned. This is Modi’s guarantee,” he posted in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) and followed it up with several laughing emojis.

Sahu, a Congress MP is a three-time Rajya Sabha MP and also serves as a Member of the Consultative Committee for the Power and New and Renewable Energy ministries. He joined politics in 1977.