Within days of raids on Kanpur perfume trader Peeyush Jain during which cash worth hundreds of crores was recovered along with gold and silver, the Income Tax department sleuths raided another perfume trader Pushpraj Jain alias Pammi Jain, who was a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and member of the UP legislative assembly.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav termed the I-T raid on his party leader as an act reflective of BJP's 'desperation' and said that the people of Uttar Pradesh would give a 'befitting' reply to the saffron party in the forthcoming assembly polls in the state due in two months' time.
According to the sources, the I-T team raided the offices and residence of Pushpraj Jain, who had made the 'Samajwadi Perfume' during the previous SP regime, at Kannauj and other places. It was not clear if the I-T team recovered cash or other items in the raid.
Pushpraj's name had cropped up after the raids on Peeyush Jain, who the BJP leaders claimed was associated with the SP. The SP denied any connection with Peeyush and claimed that the BJP got its own man raided by 'mistake'. Both Pushpraj and Peeyush had a common surname and both lived in the same lane in Kannauj.
Akhilesh slammed the I-T raids on Pushpraj and said that the BJP was now 'desperate' and was 'misusing' central agencies to target its rivals.
''After it mistakenly got its own leader raided, BJP got its closest associate, the I-T department, to raid Pushpraj Jain.....it is a blatant misuse of central agencies...the people are watching and will give a befitting reply to the BJP,'' Akhilesh said.
The raids on Peeyush Jain, which had yielded Rs 284 crore cash, 25 kg of gold and 250 kg of silver, triggered a political slugfest in UP with both SP and BJP claiming that Jain was associated with the other party. Prime minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah as well as UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath launched scathing attacks on Akhilesh after the recovery during their public meetings.
Addressing a public meeting at Kanpur on Tuesday, Modi said that the ''perfume of their corruption in UP has come out...the mountain of notes is their only achievement'' referring to the raid. ''Will they take credit for the boxes of notes?....They are silent now,'' Modi added. Adityanath also attacked Akhilesh over the raid and said that the recovery was proof of large scale corruption during his regime.
Akhilesh, however, hit back claiming that the trader had links with the BJP leaders. ''The BJP government wanted the I-T to raid some other perfume trader but then one of its own workers, who was also a perfume trader, was raided,'' he said and claimed that the cell phone records of the trader could reveal names of several prominent BJP leaders.
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