Dikhyaa Mohanty 
According to official sources, the cash seizure in the income-tax department’s searches against an Odisha-based distillery company has surpassed Rs 300 crore and is now the “highest-ever” such haul in a single action carried out by any investigative agency in the nation.
Sunday marked the start of the fifth day of the extensive raids against Boudh Distillery Private Limited, its promoters, and others. The taxman began the raids on December 6 in response to allegations of “off-the-book” transactions and tax evasion. According to the sources who spoke with PTI, cash worth over Rs 300 crore has already been counted and counting continues. According to the department, the entire money cache is thought to be “unaccounted” revenue from the business group’s cash sales of country liquor.
This is the highest-ever cash seizure made by an agency in the country as part of an action against a single group and entities linked to it, the sources had said. Some of the high-value seizures in the past include one from 2019 when the GST Intelligence raided a Kanpur-based businessman and seized cash amounting to Rs 257 crore and another instance where cash amounting to Rs 163 crore was unearthed by the I-T department during searches against a road construction firm in Tamil Nadu in July 2018.
The department is also recording the statements of the executives and other staff who were present at the searched locations and will soon issue summonses to the main promoters of the company for recording their statements.
