Income Tax searches 7 places in Chhattisgarh, 2 linked to Bhupesh Baghel’s aide | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Income Tax searches 7 places in Chhattisgarh, 2 linked to Bhupesh Baghel’s aide

Jun 30, 2022 02:16 PM IST

Saumya Chaurasia, an officer of the Chhattisgarh Administrative Service, joined the chief minister’s office in December 2018, within days of Bhupesh Baghel taking charge as chief minister

The Income tax department is conducting searches at seven locations in Chhattisgarh including two places linked to deputy secretary in the chief minister’s office, Saumya Chaurasia, people familiar with the development said.

Income tax officials carried out searches at seven locations in Chhattisgarh linked to influential businessman Surya Kant Tiwari and CMO deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia (Sourced)
Income tax officials carried out searches at seven locations in Chhattisgarh linked to influential businessman Surya Kant Tiwari and CMO deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia (Sourced)

The searches, which are being conducted by tax officials requisitioned from outside Chhattisgarh, started at about 6am.

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“Search operations of I-T Department are going on at seven locations in Chhattisgarh including two locations linked to Chaurasia,” a senior Chhattisgarh government official said.

The five other locations are linked to Surya Kant Tiwari, a businessman, who is considered to be close to some politicians and bureaucrats.

Chaurasia, an officer of the Chhattisgarh Administrative Service (CAS), joined the chief minister’s office soon after chief minister Bhupesh Baghel took oath in December 2018.

This is the second time that she is being raided by tax officials in a little over two years.

Chaurasia’s Bhilai house was first searched by income tax officials in February 2020, prompting Bhupesh Baghel to send an angry letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over what he called ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘politically motivated’ income-tax (I-T) raids in the Congress-ruled state. Baghel’s letter alleged that the raids coincided with a criminal investigation initiated by his government into acts of corruption under the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

In a statement on March 2, 2020, the finance ministry later said the raids in Chhattisgarh on February 27 2020 were carried out on individuals, hawala dealers and businessmen in Raipur on basis of credible inputs and evidence of the generation of huge unaccounted cash from liquor and mining business and its transfer to public servants, huge cash deposits during the demonetisation period, accommodation entries from shell companies and undisclosed investment in properties.

The statement also said that the investigation revealed “total unaccounted transactions” of over 150 crore.

It is not clear if the fresh round of searches are being conducted as part of the investigation into the 2020 case or in a new one.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    State Correspondent for Chhattisgarh. Reports Maoism, Politics, Mining and important developments from the state. Covered all sorts of extremism in Central India. Reported from Madhya Pradesh for eight years.

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