Lucknow, 26 February. The Income Tax team’s raid on the Lucknow residences of the lone Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA in Uttar Pradesh, Uma Shankar Singh and his close associates, ended on Thursday. Cash worth Rs 10 crore has been recovered from the house of MLA in Vipulkhand. However, the action of the Income Tax team is still going on at his office and other places.
It is noteworthy that on Wednesday, the Income Tax Department conducted a major raid on the premises of BSP MLA Umashankar Singh and his close relatives from Ballia’s Rasra Assembly seat. Simultaneous raids were conducted at more than 30 places in Lucknow, Ballia, Sonbhadra, Kaushambi, Mirzapur and Prayagraj. Teams of more than 50 officers remained engaged in the investigation from 11 am till late night.
Three teams of the Income Tax Department searched the residence of Umashankar Singh in Vipul Khand in Gomtinagar, Lucknow, the corporate office of his company Chatrashakti Construction Company and the premises of close contractor Faizi on Wazir Hasan Road. Apart from this, the locations of many mining businessmen including CB Gupta, close to Umashankar Singh, who was doing mining business in the name of Sai Ram Enterprises Company in Sonbhadra, were searched. Important clues related to tax evasion and benami properties were found in the raid.
Name came up in mining scam
Umashankar Singh does road and mining related work in the name of Chatrashakti Construction Company and Sai Ram Enterprises. Last year, CAG had said in its report that there was a loss of revenue of about Rs 60 crore due to illegal mining operations in Sonbhadra. It is believed that only after this CAG report, the locations of Umashankar Singh and his close ones were searched.
The officers had arrived posing as wedding guests
It was not easy for the Income Tax Department to raid the residence of MLA Umashankar in Ballia. In such a situation, the team arrived in the style of wedding procession instead of government vehicles. Wedding stickers of Mahendra Kumar and Sangeeta Kumari’s name were put on the vehicles so that no one could have any doubt. Under the cover of this strategy, the officers reached the residence directly without any noise and started action.
Many bureaucrats on target
In the Income Tax raid, important documents related to illegal mining that took place in Sonbhadra and Mirzapur during the last few years have been seized, in which the names of many officers and the amount paid to them are mentioned. The Income Tax Department suspects that the black money of many bureaucrats has been invested in the mining business, clues for which are being collected.
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