Rs 351 crore, 176 bags of money: Inside India's ‘largest cash haul’ at Congress MP’s house

Rs one crore, a 100 crore, 200 crore, 300 crore and still counting. Income Tax officials are astonished at the haul they have recovered as they continue their raid on premises linked to Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Sahu in Jharkhand and Odisha. At the end of Sunday, which was the fifth day of the raid , authorities had seized a whopping Rs 351 crore – an amount they have pegged as the “highest-ever” black money haul by any agency in a single operation. The record haul has prompted reactions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Home Minister Amit Shah. On Friday, the PM had said that every penny will have to be returned to the public. “Countrymen should look at the pile of these notes and then listen to the honest ‘speeches’ of their leaders….Whatever has been looted from the public, every penny will have to be returned, this is Modi’s guarantee,” he said. Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah said, “I am very surprised. After independence, such a large amount of cash has been seized from an MP’s house. Crores of rupees have been recovered but the whole INDI alliance is silent on this corruption. I understand Congress is silent as corruption is in their nature, but JDU, RJD, DMK, and SP all are sitting silently. “Now I understand why a campaign was run against PM Modi that agencies are being misused. It was run because there was a fear in their mind that all the secrets of their corruption would be revealed.” As the I-T raids continue for the sixth day on Monday with floor covered in cash and even lockers stocked with notes, here’s a closer look at who is Dhiraj Sahu and how he accumulated this wealth. The man behind the cash The man in the eye of the I-T storm is Dhiraj Sahu, a 64-year-old Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand. A son of industrialist and social worker Baldeo Sahu, who the MP claims was part of the freedom struggle, Dhiraj began his political career with the Congress in 1977, as a member of National Students Union of India from 1978 to 1983. He climbed the party ladder, first as an office-bearer in the Lohardaga district and later with the Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee. [caption id=“attachment_13489532” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Congress’ Dhiraj Sahu is a Rajya Sabha MP and has served for three terms. He has also been on various parliamentary committees. Image Courtesy: @dpsahuINC/Facebook[/caption] In a 2009 bypoll, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha and was later re-elected in 2010. In May 2018, he became a Rajya Sabha member for the third time and in his tenure has also served on various parliamentary committees. As of now, he continues to be a member of the Consultative Committee on Power and New and Renewable Energy, and a member of the Committee on Coal, Mines and Steel. Sources have been reported as saying that Sahu is close to top leaders within his party as well as in the Biju Janata Dal. As per an Indian Express report, Sahu’s family is involved in multiple businesses besides liquor, including hotels, real estate, transportation and fisheries. In fact, according to his 2018 election affidavit, his earnings were pegged at Rs 1 crore and he stated that he had four cars, including a BMW and a Range Rover. His wife owned 3.1 kilograms of gold valued then at Rs 94.5 lakh, and Sahu himself owned diamond jewellery valued at Rs 26.16 lakh at the time. Furthmore, he had invested Rs 2.5 crore in Baldeo Sahu Shiv Prasad Sahu – a family-owned company – and Rs 2 crore to Baldeo Sahu and Sons. As per his details, he had assets worth Rs 34.47 crore and had no criminal cases registered against him. [caption id=“attachment_13489582” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] CISF personnel at the residence of Jharkhand Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu as the Income Tax raids continue in connection with the disproportionate assets case, in Ranchi. PTI[/caption] Money, money, everywhere On 6 December, authorities from the I-T department began its searches against Boudh Distillery Private Limited, its promoters and others on charges of tax evasion and “off-the-book” transactions. As part of their searches, they also reached the doors of Sahu’s residence and other places linked to him. The raids have been carried out in properties linked to the influential family at Ranchi, Sabalpur, Bolangir, Titilagarh, Boudh, and Sudargarh in Jharkhand, and Rourkela and Bhubaneswar in Odisha. [caption id=“attachment_13489612” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A whopping Rs 351 crore have been unearthed during the I-T raid at Sahu’s residences which have been packed into 176 bags.[/caption] The amount of money seized in the raids was so much that nine teams of about 80 people from the tax department and various banks are working together to collect, count and collate the data. Officials collected the whopping amounts of cash in 176 bags, amounting to Rs 351 crore. To count this money, authorities have had to make use of 40 currency counting machines. Reports stated that initially, there was a shortage of machines as the ones in the counting operation gave in. Giving an update on the cash-counting, SBI regional manager, Bhagat Behera, said that all the cash seized would be deposited at the main branch of State Bank of India (SBI) in Balangir. In fact, he revealed that of the 176 bags that they had received, 140 had been processed and the remaining 36 would be completed by Monday-evening. “We received 176 bags and 140 of them have been counted, the rest will be counted today. Officials from three banks are involved in the counting process, and 50 of our officials are involved. About 40 (currency counting) machines were brought here, 25 are in use and 15 are kept as backup,” he said, as quoted by news agency ANI. According to the officials involved, the cash haul was such that it was lying on the floor, stuffed in cabinets across the residences. Authorities say that this haul is the largest single seizure ever made by any investigative agency in India, shattering all the previous records. Prior to this, the highest-ever cash recovered was made in 2019 from a Kanpur-based businessman amounting to Rs 257 crore. [caption id=“attachment_13489622” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Officials dub this as the largest single seizure ever made by any investigative agency in India, shattering all the previous records. PTI[/caption] Politicos speak The Congress has distanced itself from MP Sahu, saying that it is not connected with the businesses in any way and that the MP should explain the cash and its source. On Saturday, the Congress General secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “Only he can explain, and should explain, how huge amounts of cash have been reportedly unearthed by the income-tax authorities from his properties.” However, the BJP has attacked the Congress and its MP for the ‘largest cash haul’. From PM Modi to its leaders, many have taken jibes at the Grand Old Party as well as the INDIA bloc on the matter. Union Minister Smriti Irani questioned the Congress and said that the Gandhi family must reveal the name of the leader for whom the Rajya Sabha MP was working as an “ATM”. BJP’s president JP Nadda also said: “Counting is still on, no one knows where this counting will stop, this is just tip of the iceberg. They always made allegations against our agencies. We want to ask Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi, what he had to say on this money. Why is Sonia Gandhi silent now?” Reacting to Home Minister Amit Shah’s charge on corruption, Congress’ Manickam Tagore said, “It’s very unfortunate for the Home Minister to speak like this. There is no corruption. Where does corruption come into the picture? He is a Congress MP. He has his businesses. For he has to be answerable about his businesses,” MP Tagore told ANI. With inputs from agencies