New Delhi: In a major crackdown by the Income-Tax department, the residence and official premises of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s close aide Praveen Kakkar were raided by the officials of the department in the wee hours of Sunday. The I-T department is carrying out the raids on several close aides of CM Kamal Nath including his former OSD Kakkar and Nath's adviser Rajendra Kumar Miglani.


As per reports, the two officers allegedly made huge cash transactions in connection with an alleged hawala (illegal transaction) case.

More than 15 officials are present at Kakkar’s Vijay Nagar residence in Indore and the search is still going on. Searches are also underway at his Bhopal residence.

The pre-dawn swoop which is still underway, began at around 3 am on Sunday and so far Rs 9 crore in cash has been recovered.

The I-T department is conducting raids at about 60 places in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, sources said.

Kakkad, a former Madhya Pradesh police officer, was appointed OSD to Nath after the Congress-led government came to power in the state last year. He had earlier served as OSD to former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria during the UPA regime. Kakkad's family is associated with a number of businesses, including hospitality.

As per news agency ANI, the I-T dept is conducting searches at 50 locations. Searches are underway at locations of MP Chief Minister's OSD, Ratul Puri, Amira Group, and Moser Baer. Searches are also underway in Bhoola, Indore,Goa and 35 locations in Delhi.

More than 300 I-T officials conducting the searches, the agency said.

ANI also tweeted pictures of cash recovered during the raid at residential premises of Prateek Joshi in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The pictures were provided by I-T sources, the report claimed.






Kamal Nath is campaigning for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara.

The raids on Kamal Nath's aides come just a week after the income tax officials carried out raids at the residences of Karnataka Minor Irrigation Minister C S Puttaraju and his nephew on March 28.

Income Tax officials along with CRPF personnel carried out raids at the residences of Puttaraju and his nephew. Puttaraju said three teams of Income Tax officials and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel carried out raids at his Chinnakurli residence in Mandya and his nephew's house in Mysuru.

The development came a day after, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy raised fears about possible raids on Congress and JD(S) functionaries in the state. He had claimed that CRPF personnel were brought from various parts of the country to carry out the raids.