Patna, April 22: An enormous stockpile of unaccounted cash, jewellery and documents showing investments totalling over Rs 7 crore was seized during yesterday's Income Tax raids on 65 residential and business premises of 25 people. Those raided included a senior Bihar minister, a Rashtriya Janata Dal MP and a party MLA, in connection with the multi-crore fodder and bitumen scams.Director (Investigation) of the Income Tax department Jagdish Jha said details of the seizure were being worked out and in some places raids were still on.He said he was not in a position to provide the break-up of the seizure immediately.I-T sleuths had searched the official residences of Bihar Road Construction Minister Illyas Hussain in connection with the bitumen scam and conducted raids on various premises of RJD Rajya Sabha member Prem Gupta and party MLA R K Rana in the fodder scam, Jha said.The raid on the residence of Hussain's private secretary Shahabuddin Baig yielded Rs 23.83 lakh in cash besides investments insaving instruments, he said.Rana, who was held in connection with some fodder scam cases, was released on bail recently.Jha said though very little cash was found at the minister's residence, raids on the premises of engineers of the Road Construction department had led to the recovery of keys to over 50 lockers, scores of passbooks and documents showing huge investments in real estate, fixed deposits, Kisan Vikas Patras and National Savings Certificates.A division bench of the Patna High Court monitoring investigation into the fodder scam had expressed displeasure over the alleged inaction on part of the Income Tax authorities in conducting raids on the fodder scam accused believed to possess assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.In a public interest litigation in April last year, leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Sushil Kumar Modi had alleged massive bungling in the procurement of bitumen by the government from oil companies.The Patna High Court had ordered aCBI probe into the alleged bungling of over Rs 300 crore but refused to monitor the investigation.All attempts to contact the minister, his private secretary and R K Rana for their comments proved futile. Gupta was away in Rajasthan.
