Raids on ittar perfumier raise a stink!

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the nearly Rs 200 crore cash recovered in tax searches on perfume maker Peeyush Jain in UP’s Kannauj district is not BJP money, and that the raid was at the correct address and not an outcome of knocking on the wrong door.

Staunchly defending the action, she said the raids, which were based on actionable intelligence, seemed to have “shaken” former UP CM and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav as the person caught red-handed could be his partner.

She rejected the charge that the wrong Jain was raided and the BJP’s money seized, saying, “how do they know whose money is kept? Are they partners? He (Jain) must be their partner that’s why they are saying with so much surety that it is BJP’s money.”

The Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax recovered Rs 197.49 crore cash, 23 kg gold, and some “offending goods” of high value in searches carried out at Odochem Industries, a perfume manufacturer and its proprietor Peeyush Jain last week.