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The Income Tax department conducted searches at more than 50 locations in Chhattisgarh, including premises of senior IAS officials, Deputy Secretary to the Chief Minister and the Mayor of Raipur, on Thursday and Friday.
The ongoing searches have unsettled the state bureaucracy and increased tensions between the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP, each accusing the other of corruption and vengeful politics.
Income Tax teams, sources said, are being assisted by CRPF personnel and no information is being shared with the state police or agencies.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel called a meeting of the state Cabinet which said the searches were politically motivated. Baghel and his ministers went to Governor Anusuiya Uikey to submit a letter, requesting her to step in and stop the “damage to the democratic structure” of the country.
“The alleged I-T employees have been raiding properties belonging to senior officers including people working in the CM’s office,” the letter stated. Calling the searches unconstitutional, the letter accused the BJP of acting against democracy by deploying central forces in the state without any communication.
Minister Ravindra Choubey told reporters: “These actions are politically motivated. For the past few days, the I-T raids have been happening without informing local authorities. In a federal structure, it is of utmost importance that the state and central governments exchange information freely.”
State BJP leaders hit back at the Congress government. BJP leader Sachidanand Upasane said: “Just yesterday, Congress leaders and ministers were commenting that officials involved were from the previous government. What happened today that the government’s happiness fled?… The face of the government is full of wrinkles of corruption… They don’t dare see their own reflection.”
Incidentally, the searches directed at bureaucrats began a day after the state Economic Offences Wing informed the High Court in Bilaspur about the registration of an FIR against former Principal Secretary Aman Singh and his wife Yasmeen Singh over alleged disproportionate assets.
Considered close to former BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh, Aman Singh is an influential bureaucrat. The FIR was registered Tuesday after the EOW claimed to have uncovered several shell companies and undisclosed assets. The couple had moved the High Court seeking respite from what they called “politically motivated” harassment.
On Thursday, around 200 men from the I-T department, along with CRPF personnel, descended on properties of senior bureaucrats, businessmen and chartered accountants. The houses of Raipur Mayor Ejaz Dhebar and his brother Anwar Dhebar were searched around 6 am and these were followed by searches at the houses of IAS official Anil Tuteja, former Chief Secretary and current state RERA chairperson Vivek Dhand, Excise Secretary A P Tripathi, CM’s Deputy Secretary Soumya Chaurasia, liquor businessmen and chartered accountants.
Dhand was named in a Rs 1000-crore ‘disability fund’ scam, the investigation of which was handed over to CBI by the High Court last month.
In the early hours of Friday, the Raipur traffic police seized 18 cars, reportedly being used by the I-T Department. Raipur SP Arif Shaikh said: “The vehicles were parked in a no-parking zone. We have been policing the traffic and because of the upcoming visit of the President on March 1, we have stepped up security. There were no stickers or papers, and all the vehicles were private. We cut the challan, asked them to pay and let the vehicles go.”
The I-T confirmed the searches but declined to comment on why these were being conducted. CBDT spokesperson Surabhi Ahluwalia said: “We have done the groundwork and have reasons to investigate these premises. The details of the case will be made clear later.”
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