Huge Quantity Of Torn Rs 500 Notes Found Near Distillery Amid IT Raids In Odisha’s Boudh

Bhubaneswar: Even as Income Tax officials recovered 156 bags of cash during raids on places linked to Boudh Distillery Private Limited (BDPL) in Odisha, huge quantity of torn Rs 500 notes were found dumped near its compound on Friday.

According to sources, the locals found the currency notes torn in the middle dumped near the boundary wall of the BDPL at Titirikata under Harabhanga block in Boudh district in the morning. As the news spread, others rushed there and collected the torn notes.

On being informed, police went to the spot and dispersed the crowd. They also collected some amount of Rs 500 notes.

It may be noted that the IT department has been carrying out raids on places linked to an Odisha-based distillery group on charges of tax evasion for the last three days. They have already seized 156 bags of cash.

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 said.

The raids were launched at Sambalpur, Balangir, Titlagarh, 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.