Babu Lal suspected to be involved in illegal mining

Large booty seized as EC, IT, police and customs officials continue raids 

Savings certificates worth Rs 34.24 crore were seized from the residence of financier Ramesh Parashuram Puria alias Babu Lal, in the raids that continued on Sunday.

The flying squad of the Election Commission, the district administration, the police, customs, and the Income Tax sleuths continued their raids, which began on Friday night.

The probe against the financier’s wealth is being intensified as the officials suspect that he might have been involved in illegal mining, owing to the fact that he was also previously into ore transportation business.

Every room, overhead tank, vehicles including cars and lorries parked on the premises of his houses, etc, were searched by the officials, who have stumbled upon various documents and files related to land, property and transport business, apart from Kisan Vikas certificates, National Savings Certificates, deposits in the Postal department and documents related to hundreds of acres of land and scores of sites in Sandur and Bellary taluks.

Deputy Commissioner Aditya Amalan Biswas told Deccan Herald that the documents related to ore mining revealed that Babu Lal owned hundreds of lorries, and had given up the business, after mining and iron ore export were banned. He ventured into money-lending later.

He said that the matter had been brought to the notice of the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax department and the Reserve Bank of India and a detailed probe will be initiated into all the assets of him.

Rs 8.77 crore in cash was seized from his residence during the raids conducted in the last two days. The cash was allegedly meant to lure voters during the elections to the Lok Sabha. However, the deputy commissioner added that they were yet to ascertain the political party for which the cash was supposed to be distributed.