Top MP babus may face I-T summons
A section of top officers and some retired bureaucrats here are in a stupor due to a prolonged search and seizure operation by the income-tax department which began last Wednesday on the premises of two Bhopal-based business groups closely associated with those at the helm of affairs in Madhya Pradesh.
A senior bureaucrat told this newspaper on condition of anonymity on Saturday that many officers, both serving and retired, are spending anxious moments as they might be called for interrogation by the income-tax department during the course of investigations linked with these raids.
The raids came at a time when chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state industries minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, along with a select group of officers, were touring Japan and few other countries to attract foreign investment.
Income-tax sleuths earlier this week launched a massive search and seizure operation on the business premises of Dilip Buildcon Private Limited and its owner, high profile Bhopal-based builder Dilip Suryavanshi.
His company, over the last few years, has bagged a number of road construction projects in Madhya Pradesh and other BJP-ruled states.
Simultaneously, raids were also conducted on the residential and other premises of BJP leader and local businessman Sudhir Sharma. The issue of Mr Sharma’s phenomenal rise from a college lecturer to a super rich businessman with huge mining interests in the state within a short span of time under the present state Bharatiya Janata Party government was raised by Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh during a recent debate on a no-confidence motion against the chief minister. The ruling side’s reply to this was that every citizen has the right to successfully run an enterprise and prosper.
Many in the ruling party circles here have also been rattled and are describing the latest round of raids conducted by the income-tax department as political vendetta.
While few in the BJP are pointing out that some Congress leaders are behind these raids as Mr Suryavanshi is known for his long-standing personal relationship with the chief minister, state BJP president Prabhat Jha has a different take in this matter. According to him, nothing much should be read in these raids except that it is part of routine income-tax department procedure to plug tax evasion.
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