IT raids on perfume trader linked to SP

The Income Tax officials raided the premises of several perfume traders, including Samajwadi Party MLA Pushpraj Jain in Kannauj on Friday.  Jain is the maker of ‘Samajwadi ittra (perfume)’ that was recently launched by party president Akhilesh Yadav. The I-T department said searches were underway in Kannauj, Kanpur, the national capital region, Surat, Mumbai and a few other places, and about 20 premises were being covered as part of the raid. During the raids, I-T officials have come across 10 bank accounts of Pushpraj Jain and his family members. The bank accounts are in Mumbai and Kannauj. The officials are going through the bank account details.

The raids have entered political speeches, with the BJP and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party accusing each other of backing the jailed perfume trader.The BJP has said the arrested is a close ally of Yadav, while the latter has said the ruling camp has got one of its own arrested by mistake. Taking to Twitter, the Samajwadi party said, “The scared BJP leadership is openly misusing the central agencies… People are watching, will answer through their votes.”