Reports about the money recovered from Kanpur perfume trader Piyush Jain as being “turnover” from his manufacturing unit were called “baseless” by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI). The agency said a section of the media had claimed that Jain deposited Rs 52 crore as “tax liability” on the DGGI approval while the rest of the money was returned to him. These reports were “purely speculative”, the DGGI said as reported by Hindustan Times.
“These reports are without any basis and seek to undermine the integrity of the ongoing investigations which are being carried out in a most professional manner based on specific intelligence against the party,” the DGGI said in a press release.
“In this regard, it is clarified that the total amount of cash in the ongoing case from the residential and factory premises of M/s Peeyush Jain has been kept as case property in the safe custody of the State Bank of India pending further investigations,” the release further said.
Jain was in the headlines after a whopping Rs 257 crore was recovered in cash along with gold and silver from his offices and residences in raids conducted by the Income Tax department and DGGI. Officials had to call for around 20 cash-counting machines and an entire team of SBI officials to count the money that is still being recovered from the businessman.
He was arrested on charges of tax evasion on December 26 after over 40 hours of the raid by central agencies, in what turned out to be arguably the biggest cash seizure in recent times.
The man was leading a low-profile life, when the unravelling happened. The DGGI took action in a matter related to non-payment of GST on tobacco and pan masala loaded in four trucks. The trucks belonged to Ganpati Road Carrier and through this, DGGI officials reached Shikhar Pan Masala factory where officials recovered more than 200 fake invoices in the name of Ganpati Road Carrier.
During the action, the makers of Shikhar Gutkha said they owed tax and deposited Rs 3.09 crore. The name of another partner of Shikhar Gutkha came to the fore — Jain’s Odocam Industries.
A political slugfest over the issue started in Uttar Pradesh, with BJP leaders claiming that Jain was the same person who had launched ‘Samajwadi Perfume’ in SP office recently and was associated with the party. However, the man who launched the ‘Samajwadi Perfume’ is Pushpraj Jain alias Pampi Jain who has been a Samajwadi Party MLC. The SP leaders have also said they had nothing to do with Jain and, instead, he was related to the ruling BJP.
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