Highlights:
- Pushpraj Jain is a Samajwadi Party MLC from Kannauj.
- Pushpraj Jain had previously denied any connection with Piyush Jain.
- The Samajwadi Party has accused the ruling BJP government of wrongdoing.
Pushpraj ‘Pampi’ Jain of the opposition Samajwadi Party was searched by officials this morning, only days after a tax raid on an Uttar Pradesh businessman recovered eye-popping oodles of cash but raised concerns about whether it had located its intended target.
The Income Tax Department is searching over 50 sites in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Mumbai for a businessman who owns perfumery, petrol outlets, and cold storage businesses and has made a ‘Samajwadi Party perfume’ ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for early next year.
On Twitter, the opposition party commented on the raids: “After a huge failure last time, this time BJP’s ultimate ally IT (income Tax Department) has finally raided the place of SP MLC Shri Pushp Raj Jain and other perfume traders of Kannauj. Openly misuse of central agencies by scared BJP is common in UP elections. People are watching everything, they will answer by vote.”
The raid comes after another businessman Piyush Jain’s massive raid at his Kanpur and Kannauj offices, which resulted in the recovery of 196 crore in cash and 23 kg gold.
The raids have entered political rhetoric in the midst of a heated election campaign, with the BJP and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party accusing each other of supporting the jailed perfume trader.
The BJP claimed that Piyush Jain was the one who just released the Samajwadi perfume. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the opposition party in Kanpur on Wednesday, saying, “Boxes containing notes have been brought out. Kanpur residents are well-versed in business and trade. Before 2017, the perfume of corruption that they had strewn throughout Uttar Pradesh was visible to everybody.”
Mr Yadav said that the BJP mistook businessman Piyush Jain for Pushpraj Jain, MLC from Samajwadi Party, who released the perfume named after his party “Samajwadi Perfume”. He denied any connection to Piyush Jain and said that the BJP had “their own businessmen raided by mistake.”
Following Mr Yadav’s reaction, Congress leader P Chidambaram resorted to Twitter to speculate whether the seizure was a “comedy of errors.” “I’m guessing the comedy won’t stop here. More personalities will emerge as more allegations are thrown between the BJP and the SP,” he stated.
Pushpraj Jain told one of the leading news agencies of India that he has no connections to Piyush Jain and is “saddened by the low level of politics.” “It’s below the belt to use my name in connection with the raids,” he stated. When asked about Mr. Chidambaram’s tweet, Jain responded, “He may be correct, the raids may have been planned for me.”
However, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) dismissed the theory of mistaken identity. They claim to have obtained detailed information about the Shikhar Pan Masala group’s suspected tax fraud. According to the sources, their investigation led them to Piyush Jain’s Odochem Industries & Ganapati Road Carriers.
