BHOPAL: After two high-profile actions in Bhopal, the Income Tax department is inspecting business interests of one of the oldest and most powerful families associated with the ruling BJP in MP’s Bundelkhand region.
Multiple teams conducted searches at around seven premises of three possibly inter-related businesses in Sagar district from Sunday morning.
It also covered the premises of ex-BJP MLA Harvash Singh Rathore, whose family is among one of the wealthiest and powerful BJP families in Bundelkhand region.
Two generations of the Rathore family, including ex-minister Late Harnam Singh Rathore and son Harvansh, have won the Banda seat of Sagar district, five times between 1985 and 2013 for the BJP.
According to state BJP sources, Harnam Singh Rathore’s ex-MLA son Harvansh is among the frontrunners for the post of Sagar district BJP chief.
The IT department also raided premises of BJP’s ex-municipal corporator Rajesh Kesharwani, whose family too has stakes in a prominent beedi business and premises of LIC agent and businessman Rakesh Chhabra in Sagar city.
According to sources, the three families/business entities are believed to be closely associated. The search may give evidence of tax evasion, bogus investments and suspected Benami transactions.
Last month, six-days long searches at 50-plus premises of three big builders and real estate groups in Bhopal led to a suspected nexus of prominent builders and powerful people which was investing unaccounted money in village lands on Bhopal’s outskirts.
The searches which led to around `10 crore unaccounted cash and other movable properties also resulted in attachment of properties worth `250 crore. Further, the IT department is also probing another high-profile matter since December 2024 – the recovery of 52 kg unaccounted gold and Rs 11 crore cash from an MUV owned by the key aide of ‘crorepati’ ex-transport department constable Saurabh Sharma.
Searches at BJP’s wealthiest families’ houses
The I-T department conducted searches at the premises of ex-BJP MLA Harvash Singh Rathore, whose family is among one of the wealthiest and powerful BJP families in Bundelkhand region. Two generations of the Rathore family, including ex-minister Late Harnam Singh Rathore and son Harvansh, have won the Banda seat of Sagar district, five times between 1985 and 2013 for the BJP.