BHUBANESWAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party in Odisha, on Friday questioned the “mysterious silence” of the state’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on the recovery of Rs 350 crore during Income Tax (I-T) raids on liquor traders in Bolangir, Bouth and Sambalpur districts.
It dared Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to come clean on the matter by ordering a probe by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Black Money.
“If the Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik believes he is clean, he must write a letter to Justice the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Black Money, seeking a probe into the recovery of such huge amounts of money,” said BJP spokesperson Manoj Mahapatra.
In December, the I-T sleuths from Delhi had recovered Rs 350 crore from the liquor traders in Bolangir, Boudh, Sambalpur and a few other places. However, the state government has not yet clarified in detail how the liquor traders had hoarded huge sums of cash with them.
The BJP questioned why the CM was silent and what was the relationship between the Sahu brothers and the BJD.
“The Chief Minister is well aware of the fact that a leader of his party from the coastal part of the state had links with Boudh Distillery, the key country-liquor manufacturer. We dare the CM to write a letter to the SIT on Black Money, requesting the body for an investigation into the hoarding of such huge sums of cash by the liquor traders. If the CM writes a letter to SIT on Black Money, we will believe that he is clean,” he added.
The party alleged that Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu had stashed the money to give some portion of it to mahua flower farmers and the rest to the state government as revenue as per the state government’s liquor policy.
Demanding payment of outstanding dues to the mahua flower farmers, the party also wished to know whether the money was to be paid to the state government as revenue or to the party as election funding.
