Bhubaneswar: The recovery of cash worth around Rs 350 crore in income tax raids against the family liquor business of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Sahu in Odisha and its neighbouring states has snowballed into a national controversy.
The BJP has targeted the Congress for allegedly “protecting corruption”, even though the party’s leadership has refused to defend Sahu, whose family dominates the country liquor business in Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The saffron party has sought to grab the moral high ground by building an anti-Congress narrative on the issue of corruption. Top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appear to have used the massive cash recovery in the raids – said to be the biggest-ever in a single operation by the income tax department – to paint a black picture of the grand old party, which is still reeling under the impact of poll drubbings in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Prime Minister Modi was one of the first top-level BJP leaders to react to the seizure of an unprecedented amount of cash from the premises linked to the family members of Sahu, a big name in Jharkhand politics. Taking to X, he said, “The 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.”
देशवासी इन नोटों के ढेर को देखें और फिर इनके नेताओं के ईमानदारी के ‘भाषणों’ को सुनें… 😂😂😂
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— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 8, 2023
Not one to be left behind, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya wrote on X, “Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra was actually a journey to connect the thieves of India. Congress is #CorruptionKiDukan (the hub of corruption). Nearly ₹300 crore recovered from the premises of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dheeraj Sahu in Jharkhand is a living proof of this.”
While there is no denying that the raids have been a source of acute embarrassment for the Congress, which has left Sahu to fend for himself, what is surprising is that despite statements from top BJP leaders on the seizure, the MP from Jharkhand has not been arrested. He only reacted to the issue on Friday.
He told the news agency ANI, “What is happening today makes me sad. I can admit that the money that has been recovered belongs to my firm… The cash that has been recovered is related to my liquor firms, it is the proceedings from the sale of liquor… This money has nothing to do with Congress or any other political party as is being said… The money is not all mine, it belongs to my family and other related firms…I-T has raided now, I will give account for everything.”
Well-known political analyst professor Rajar Kujur finds this bizarre. “Why was Sahu not arrested? He is no small person and if he is being linked to the seized cash in any way, he should by now have been in the custody of the agency and his statement should have been taken. That may put an end to this entire controversy,” said Kujur.
Describing the laws regarding economic offences as weak and liable to be exploited by influential people Kujor said, “Had the laws been strong, the kind of irregularities that the IT suspects the Sahu family to have carried out would not have taken place.”
About the reactions of political parties, he said, “Though the seizure of cash is a reality, the politics over it is distasteful and allegations and counter-allegations are being made by the parties only with an eye on the next elections.”
Political tremors in Odisha
On the other hand, tremors of the raids that began on December 6 and lasted over four days are still being felt in Odisha from where the bulk of the around Rs 350 crore was recovered. Though seizures were also made from locations in Jharkhand and West Bengal, major recoveries were made from Bolangir, Sambalpur, Sundergarh and Bhubaneswar in Odisha, the main hub of the Sahu family’s liquor business.
The issue has also triggered a blame game among the major political parties in Odisha, with the BJP targeting both Congress and the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Senior saffron party leaders appear convinced that the cash was stashed at the business establishments of the Sahu family with the knowledge of BJD leadership and would have been at the disposal of the regional party at the time of elections.
“The bulk of the seized cash was recovered from Bolangir, which is known to be a poor and backward district. The money was obviously stashed there to avoid suspicion. Nobody would imagine such a huge amount of cash being hidden somewhere in Bolangir. The ruling BJD, which was preparing for early elections, perhaps in December, knew about it and would have used it,” alleged BJP’s Loisingha MLA Mukesh Mahaling.
Mahaling, whose constituency is part of Bolangir district, alleged that unscrupulous elements have entered the liquor trade in the state with the government turning a blind eye to the irregularities. “The Odisha government’s liquor policy is faulty with no control of traders. Licences are renewed at will and they promote whoever they want to,” said the MLA, who is convinced that liquor barons and the BJD leadership are working hand in glove.
He claimed that since the BJD government presented the supplementary budget in September, during the monsoon session of the state assembly instead of the usual practice of doing so in the winter session, it indicated that the party wants to hold early elections. “The money stashed away by [Sahu’s family] and recovered by the IT department would have been used by the BJD in the elections,” he said.
While BJD MLA and former minister Amar Satpathy rubbished the BJP’s allegations and demanded a thorough probe into the issue, Congress veteran Ganeshwar Behera demanded a completely impartial inquiry to bring out the truth. “There is no doubt that the law should take its course in the matter and anyone found guilty of corruption should be punished. But for the whole truth to come out, we need an independent inquiry. We want a probe by a court-monitored SIT. We don’t trust IT, ED or CBI as they are all biased and act on the directions of the central BJP leaders,” said Behera.
A vast empire
Meanwhile, IT officials are said to be probing deeper into the business interests of the Sahu family, which has been in the liquor business for several decades. The family owns the BDPL group which comprises four companies, the most prominent ones being Boudh Distillery Private Limited based in western Odisha’s Boudh district and Baldeo Sahu Infra Private Limited based in Bolangir. The business was established by Rai Saheb Baldeo Sahu, the late father of Dhiraj Sahu, and today has country liquor and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) shops all over Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.
Sources said that the group dominates the country liquor manufacturing and marketing business in Odisha with control over 250 country liquor units in the western parts of the state where mahua-based liquor has been in high demand traditionally. The Boudh Distillery Private Ltd, the flagship company of the group, has a near monopoly not only in Odisha but also in Jharkhand. It also supplies spirits for manufacturing IMFL in Odisha, where the group is said to account for about 80% of sales of spirits supplied to bottling plants in Berhampur, Khurda, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Rayagada.
