Mayawati, Akhilesh slam IT raids on lone BSP MLA Uma Shankar Singh, minister Dinesh Pratap Singh terms it 'inhuman'

Lucknow: The Income Tax department conducted raids on the residences and offices of the lone BSP MLA in Uttar Pradesh Uma Shankar Singh, who has been suffering from an advanced stage of cancer and is currently in isolation.

According to the sources, cash worth several crore was recovered during the raids besides some documents pertaining to the alleged illegal mining.

Sources said that teams of IT conducted raids on around two dozen premises in Ballia, Lucknow and some other places late on Wednesday evening. They lasted till Thursday morning.

The raids evoked sharp reactions from UP minister Dinesh Pratap Singh, BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav.

Dinesh Pratap Singh termed the raids as ‘inhuman’ and held some leaders of his own party (BJP) responsible for the same without taking their names.

‘’Everyone knows that Uma Shankar Singh has been battling cancer for the past two years and his businesses have all but closed…..he is in isolation…they could have waited,’’ he said in a post on social media.

Mayawati said that the raids were ‘unfortunate’ and ‘inhuman’.

In a statement, Akhilesh also slammed the raids and said that those who were in the good books of the BJP were never raided.

Uma Shankar Singh is the only BSP MLA in the UP assembly. He owns several construction firms.