156 Bags With Cash Found During I-T Raids On Odisha-Based Distillery Group

Bhubaneswar: A total of 156 bags of cash were recovered during Income Tax department’s raids on places linked to an Odisha-based distillery group on charges of tax evasion, the PTI reported on Friday.

According to sources, the bags containing cash were found at Sudapada in Balangir district and around Rs 20 crore have been counted till now, taking the total amount recovered so far to Rs 220 crore. “Of the 156 bags, only 6/7 were counted and the amount found was Rs 20 crore,” an official was quoted as saying.

The raids were launched at Sambalpur, Balangir, Titilagarh, Boudh, Sundargarh, Rourkela and Bhubaneswar, apart from Ranchi and Kolkata, on Wednesday and counting machines have been deployed to ascertain the exact amount of cash that appears to be “unaccounted”.

Around Rs 200 crore in cash was earlier seized during raids at the Balangir office of Baldeo Sahu & Group of Companies, one of the biggest country-liquor manufacturers and selling companies in western Odisha. The cash was then sent to banks in two trucks for counting.

The I-T team also searched the corporate office of Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd at Palasapalli in Bhubaneswar, houses of some company officials, the company’s factory and office in Boudh and the Ranisati Rice Mill.

The company is yet to release a statement on the raids.

It is worth mentioning here that Baldeo Sahu & Group of Companies is in partnership with Boudh Distilleries Pvt Ltd. The former has other businesses, including Baldeo Sahu Infra Pvt Ltd (which makes fly ash bricks), Kwality Bottlers Pvt Ltd (an IMFL bottling unit), and Kishore Prasad Bijay Prasad Beverages Pvt Ltd engaged in the sale and marketing of different IMFL brands.