Uttar Pradesh businessman Piyush Jain arrested

Uttar Pradesh: Perfume businessman of Uttar Pradesh with an alleged link with the Samajwadi Party Piyush Jain has been arrested on Sunday, days after crores of rupees in cash were seized from his residence and factory in Kanpur.

The income tax raid on the premises of the businessman became a talking point after photos of stacks of cash wrapped in the yellow paper were released by the income tax department. According to the director-general of GST Intelligence, Ahmedabad, a total of ₹187,45 crore cash was recovered during the search while another ₹10 crore was seized later.

This includes ₹5 crore recovered from his factory in Kannauj and another ₹5 crore from his residence. Unaccounted sandalwood oil, perfumes worth crores have been seized from Jain’s factory. According to reports, when the DGGI and Local Central GST team reached Jain’s premises on day one of the searches, he ran away and came back after two hours on several calls by investigating officers.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said Jain had links with the Samajwadi Party as Jain was the one to have introduced Samajwadi perfume ahead of the elections in the state. “For the past two-three days, continuous raids are being conducted on the premises of a person belonging to the SP. Rupees 257 crore in cash and several kilograms of gold and silver was recovered. This money belongs to the poor. There is also evidence of how it was looted,” Adityanath said.

During the interrogation, Jain said the cash belonged to his relatives and other family members though could not give any convincing evidence. Even the relatives whose names were taken by Jain denied the claim.

“We want to know the source of such huge cash. Why such a huge amount of cash was collected, where was this cash supposed to be used, from where this cash came. Was the 143, Anandpuri, Kanpur, where ₹177.45 crore cash was recovered a collection centre of Perfume sale or it was used for some other purpose. The investigation will be on until it reaches its logical conclusion,” an official told ANI early on Sunday.

This is the biggest cash seizure in the history of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, the apex body of the investigation agency Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) who is conducting the search.

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