The Income-Tax department on Saturday carried out raids in eight locations linked to co-operative minister Udailal Anjana in poll-bound Rajasthan.
The development comes two days after the ED on Thursday conducted raids at the residences of state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara in Jaipur and Sikar. A coaching centre allegedly linked to Dotasara was also searched. The ED has also summoned chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s son, Vaibhav Gehlot, for questioning in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) case.
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The ruling Congress, which is in a direct contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state, has raised concerns about the timing of the central agencies’ actions.
“Why are ED and I-T conducting raids ahead of the elections? I did not receive any notice or call from the I-T about this. My friend informed me about the agency’s arrival. But I will not be scared,” said Anjana, a three-time MLA from Chittorgarh Nimbahera, who has been fielded from the same seat in the upcoming elections.
Rajasthan is set to go to polls on November 25 and the votes will be counted on December 3.
“Such raids have taken place on my premises several times, but they never found anything. They won’t be able to recover anything this time as well. Let them do what they want…,” he added.
There is no official clarification yet on the reason for I-T’s raids at Anjana’s residences and offices at Udaipur and Chittorgarh, but people familiar with the matter said that a 12-member IT team from Maharashtra also raided the office of a chartered accountant at a company owned by Anjana. The officers also searched Anjana’s Fatehpura-based company Chetak Enterprise Ltd, said an official familiar with the development.
Earlier in the day, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge attacked the BJP-led Centre over ED summons to Gehlot’s son. “They (BJP) want to spoil Gehlot’s election and demoralise and scare Congress leader… We won’t be scared, we will fight strongly and will face this… We have been in politics for 50 years, but ED and IT raids during election time, have never happened…,” he told news agency ANI.
