I-T department conducts raids at premises belonging to Rajasthan minister Rajendra Yadav

Rajasthan minister Rajendra Yadav said the Income Tax department conducted raids Wednesday on multiple premises belonging to him and his family members.

Income tax department sources said the searches are being conducted as part of a tax evasion investigation.

The searches are being carried out in state capital Jaipur and some locations in Uttarakhand.

"The Income Tax department is conducting raids at business premises and residences in Kotputli and Uttarakhand. Reasons are not known," the minister of state for home said.

Yadav, the Congress MLA from Kotputli constituency, and his family members are in the business of manufacturing bags for fertilisers, grains, and cement. They are also in food business such as flour and pulses.

"Raids are being conducted at five-six places. We do not mind (officers) doing the search because we do clean businesses. If the central government feels that something is wrong, then let them do it. I know this much that we are with the truth," the Congress MLA told reporters at his civil lines residence here.

He said he was not told anything about the raids.

"When we asked them (officers), they said that the search has to be done, the (Central) government has sent them,” he said.

Yadav said his family has been in the business for 72-74 years. He said they run a clean business, having no role in any political funding.

"It is our ancestral business," he said. "My father was in the business from 1950-52, I have been doing it before I entered into politics and both of my sons are also engaged in the business. We are into the production line and supply materials to companies. This should not be associated with things like political funding."

When asked if he saw any political motivation behind the raids as they come just months before assembly elections, the minister said, "I have faced many ups and downs in my life. If there is anything like this, we will face it."