Indian tax authorities claimed to have recovered millions of dollars of black money during a raid at the residences of Congress party lawmaker, as per Indian media reports. Times of India reported Monday that the value of the unaccounted cash seized by the Income Tax Department from the premises linked to Congress Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) MP Dheeraj Sahu in Odisha and Jharkhand reached INR351 crores (around $41 million) on Sunday. The report termed the recovery as the  highest-ever black money haul by any agency in a single operation. The Indian officials were quoted as saying that they have counted 140 bags of cash out of a total of 176 so far since the raids began on December 6. Bhagat Behera, a Regional Manager of the State Bank of India, told ANI news agency that they received as many as 176 bags of cash and 140 of them have been counted. Fifty officials from three banks are involved in the counting process and 40 machines have been deployed.

Due to a significant quantity of cash still being left for counting, the authorities decided to rope in additional cash-counting machines and manpower on Sunday to speed up the process. Several visuals that came out on Sunday showed officials counting bundles of cash that were recovered from the properties of Congress MP Sahu. Most of the cash was recovered from premises linked to Boudh Distillery Private Limited in Odisha. The Congress lawmaker’s extended family is reportedly involved in a major alcohol manufacturing business and he owns several such factories in Odisha. Meanwhile, the Congress has distanced itself from its Dheeraj Sahu after the recovery of the huge amount of cash. The Indian National Congress is in no way connected with the businesses of Dheeraj Sahu, MP. Only he can explain, and should explain, how huge amounts of cash have been reportedly unearthed by the income-tax authorities from his properties," AICC general secretary Communications Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)