LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party’s national spokesperson and three of party president Akhilesh Yadav’s closest aides faced coordinated income-tax raids on their houses and offices across four districts of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, prompting the former chief minister to claim that “the ED, CBI and all other central agencies will now follow”.
More than 125 income-tax personnel fanned out into Mau, Lucknow, Mainpuri, Agra and Bengaluru to search half a dozen premises belonging to SP spokesperson Rajiv Rai who runs a chain of educational institutes in Karnataka, RCL Group promoter Manoj Yadav, Akhilesh’s former OSD Jainendra Yadav alias Neetu, and aides Rahul Bhasin and Jagat Singh. The official word was that the raids, which continued until well past midnight, were based on “tip-offs about tax evasion”.
“…I work for people’s welfare so the government has launched a crackdown…,” said Rai who had unsuccessfully contested the Mau Lok Sabha seat on an SP ticket in 2014 and reported immovable assets of Rs 13.85 crore in his election affidavit. Sources said the operation would continue on Sunday. Akhilesh said the BJP was “following in the footsteps of Congress by using central agencies to threaten political adversaries as it has no other way” of doing so.