Kanpur businessman Piyush Jain who was arrested last week after tax officials seized around Rs 200 crore in cash from his home and factory was at the centre of a blame game between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday.
BJP leaders alleged that Jain, who deals in perfumes, has links to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
At a rally in Kanpur on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the tax raids and took a jibe at the Yadav-led government that was in power in Uttar Pradesh between 2012 and 2017.
“They keep taking credit for work done by the Adityanath government,” Modi said. “Recently when boxes full of cash emerged, I thought they would say that this was also their handiwork.”
While addressing an election rally at Hardoi district, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also targeted Yadav, claiming that Jain was affiliated to the Samajwadi Party.
“Akhilesh ji is squirming, [he is] asking why we conducted raids,” Shah said, according to ANI. “Rs 250 crore were seized from his house. Akhilesh ji, where did this money come from?”
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Unnao district, Yadav claimed that Jain had no links with his party. He instead claimed that call details of Jain’s phone would reveal that he was in contact with BJP leaders, Hindi daily Navbharat Times reported.
He also said that the Uttar Pradesh government wanted to target Samajwadi Party MLC Pushpraj Jain, who is also a perfume trader, but ended up raiding Piyush Jain by mistake.
In a raid that was carried out over six days, tax officials seized around Rs 200 crore in cash, 23 kilograms of gold and 250 kilograms of silver from Jain’s home in Kanpur and factory in Kannauj, according to NDTV.
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