I-T Dept's biggest-ever seizure: Who is Dhiraj Sahu, liquor baron and Congress' Rajya Sabha MP?

Congress Rajya Sabha MP and liquor baron Dhiraj Sahu is in the eye of a storm after the Income Tax Department seized unaccounted cash worth around Rs 300 crore from premises linked to him in Odisha and Jharkhand. The cash seizure in these raids, which began on Wednesday, will make it the "highest-ever" black money haul by any agency in a single operation, official sources told news agency PTI.

Most of the cash in these raids has been recovered from premises belonging to the Boudh Distillery Private Limited in Odisha. Around 200 bags were used to pack the cash and some of these bags are still closed. 

The cash bags were found in an almirah, following which the I-T department extended the search operations to other locations including the house, office, and country liquor distillery in Sundargarh as well as the corporate office of BDPL in Bhubaneswar, houses of company officials and factory and office in Boudh Ramchikata as well as the Ranisati rice mill. 

Counting of notes is still ongoing at premises linked to the Congress MP as the Income Tax Department has deployed around 40 large and small note-counting machines and brought in more staffers. The counting of notes was being done at a slower pace than normal due to less number of machines.

As one cash bag after the other is being opened at Sahu's residence, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said the party "is in no way connected with the businesses of Dhiraj Sahu, MP." "Only he can explain, and should explain, how huge amounts of cash have been reportedly unearthed by the income-tax authorities from his properties," Ramesh further noted in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Who is Dhiraj Sahu?

Dhiraj Sahu has been a Rajya Sabha MP from Congress since 2010. He is reportedly a partner in Baldeo Sahu Infra Private Limited, a group company of Boudh Distillery Private Limited. Sahu is the son of social worker and freedom fighter Rai Sahab Baldeo Sahu and Shushila Devi. He is the brother of ex-Lok Sabha MP Shiv Prasad Sahu. His family has been associated with Congress ever since the Independence movement.

Sahu has studied BA from Marwari College in Ranchi and lives in Lohardanga, Jharkhand. He joined politics in 1977 and was jailed during the 'Jail Bharo Andolan' in 1978. Sahu was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand on a Congress ticket in July 2009. In 2010, he was once again elected to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand.

Sahu was elected to the Upper House for the third time in May 2018. He is also a member of the Coal, Mines, and Steel Committee of the Lok Sabha, as per Dhiraj Sahu's website.  As per the affidavit filed by Sahu, he has assets worth around Rs 34 crore and liabilities to the tune of around Rs 2 crore.

The affidavit states that Dhiraj Sahu has no criminal case against him. It further mentions that Sahu owns Range Rover, Fortuner, BMW KV42, and Pagero cars.

Political reactions to the I-T department raids at Dhiraj Sahu's premises

The raids at premises linked to Dhiraj Sahu have evoked sharp reactions from the BJP, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.

PM Modi took the Congress to task on this matter and said, "The countrymen should look at the pile of these notes and then listen to the honest 'speeches' of their leaders... Whatever has been looted from the public, every penny will have to be returned, this is Modi's guarantee."

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who was in the news for flagging the 'cash for query' row, told news agency ANI, "As per the information I had till morning, Rs 290 crore cash has been counted, 8 lockers are yet to open, and 10 rooms are yet to open. If this number goes upto Rs 500 crores, I won't be surprised. Rs 500 crores in cash only, then the property could be of Rs 1000 crores...some documents are recovered. Congress has made the entire economy of this country hollow..."

Union Minister Smriti Irani also said that this is not the first time that a Congress leader has been found involved in a scam. While speaking to the media, Irani said, "Not only humans but also machines got tired of counting the notes, but money continues to be recovered from the house of a corrupt leader of the Congress. Rs 200 crore worth of corruption has come out of the house of a corrupt Congress MP. Whose ATM is this in the Gandhi family, the answer to this question will be awaited."

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