Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren Responds To I-T Raids On Associates Amid Polls: 'Whole Country Is Watching...'

Jharkhand Election 2024: Chief Minister Hemant Soren criticised Income Tax raids on his associates as politically motivated. The Congress condemned the action as an attempt to pressure the opposition.

 Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday criticised the Income Tax Department's raids on his associates, questioning the timing and motives behind the action during the election period. Talking about the raids, Soren stated, "Income tax conducted raids on the premises of my associates. I don't need to say much about this because I have spoken many times about the condition of constitutional agencies. The whole country is watching on which parameters they are working and against whom they are working..."

"Have you ever seen such action in the middle of elections?... Before 2014, such things used to happen very rarely in the country," he remarked, as quoted by news agency ANI.

The Income Tax Department's searches targeted the premises of Srivastava, a close aide of Soren, over allegations of tax evasion. Sources revealed that discrepancies in Srivastava's tax payments prompted the action.

Congress, a coalition partner of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in the INDIA bloc, also reacted strongly. Party leader Rakesh Sinha accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using central agencies for political gains in Jharkhand. "This is nothing new for Jharkhand. IT raids are being carried out on opposition leaders and their personal staff continuously in the state. BJP is now only trying to find its footing through IT and ED raids. The people here have already rejected them. With such action, they are just attempting to create pressure on opposition leaders," Sinha told PTI.

 IT, ED Raids In Jharkhand Amid Polls

The raids come in the wake of previous actions by central agencies in the state. On October 26, during the assembly elections, the Income Tax Department conducted extensive searches in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Giridih, and Kolkata, targeting suspected hawala operators. These investigations led to the discovery of unaccounted assets and investments amounting to around Rs 150 crore.

Additionally, on October 14, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided properties linked to Mithilesh Thakur, a Cabinet minister in the Hemant Soren government. The ED's operation, covering 20 locations, investigated alleged irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission projects. The raids involved Thakur’s brother Vinay Thakur, his private secretary Harendra Singh, and several departmental engineers.