KOLKATA: The Income Tax department conducted an overnight raid at the residence of Trinamool Congress MLA and former minister Jakir Hossain in Murshidabad district on Wednesday and recovered cash of Rs 11 crore. Hossain's residence, bidi factory and oil mill were raided by the taxmen.
Around cash, Rs 5.5 crore was seized from two other bidi manufacturing units in Murshidabad, which belong to other persons. ‘’Raids were conducted at multiple places in West Bengal and a sizable amount of cash was seized,’’ said an official of the IT department.
Hossain is the MLA from Jangipur in Murshidabad and a former junior labour minister in the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet.
Hossain, however, said the cash recovered by the central agency was part of his regular valid operations required to make payments. "Around 7,000 labourers work in my business organisations. Their wages are paid in cash. The money which was seized was meant to be paid to the labourers and farmers. We showed IT officials documents but they didn’t pay any heed. For security reasons, sometimes we need to keep cash at home. I pay tax regularly and the law will take its own course,’’ he said.
The Trinamool Congress described the IT’s action as part of a pre-planned conspiracy hatched by the BJP. ‘’Hossain is a well-established businessman. Two days ago, a turncoat who joined the BJP talked about the raid. The anticipation proves that the raid was pre-planned and politically motivated to malign our party and the MLA,’’ said TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.