On February 1, the I-T department officials carried out a raid at the premises of a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in Noida Sector 50 and recovered unaccounted cash worth crores. The ex-IPS officer Ram Narayan Singh is said to be closely associated with the Samajwadi Party.
According to reports, I-T officials arrived in Sector-50 late on Sunday evening and discovered cash during their search. The cash, which was in currencies of Rs 2,000, Rs 500 and Rs 200, was found stashed in over 600 lockers created in Singh’s Sector-50 residence in Noida, according to the officials. The I-T officials had to use bank counting machine to count the cash recovered from these lockers.
Providing an explanation for the huge amount of money recovered from his premises, ex-IPS officer Ram Narayan Singh said that he runs a private locker business under the name Manasam Noida Vaults, and provides private locker facilities to customers. Denying any wrongdoing, Singh told reporters that he was running “a legitimate business” of renting out private lockers for the last five years and didn’t do anything illegal.
“I was told that the I-T department has come for checking of the private lockers and the search is on. I have nothing to hide as I am running a legitimate business and have several customers who are using these services,” he said.
Ram Narayan Singh was an IPS officer of UP cadre and 1983 batch. He retired from DG rank. He is said to be very close to the Samajwadi Party.
According to the source, the IT department had received information about unaccounted cash at the Noida and Ghaziabad residence of Singh. Following the tip-off, a team of I-T department sleuths, along with Noida Police, reached Singh’s residence on 30 January and started the searches.
IT officials, sources said, have made a list of people who were using this locker facility and notices will soon be issued to them. “It needs to be checked if these lockers are genuinely rented out by actual customers or are benami.”
I-T raid conducted on individuals close to Samajwadi Party
It is pertinent to note that this is not the first time that an individual facing I-T raids recently has been reported close to Akhilesh Yadav. In fact, on January 4, the Income Tax Department conducted raids at the properties of real estate company ACE Group and its promoter Ajay Chaudhary in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Agra. According to the reports, Chaudhary is said to be a close aide of Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav.
Likewise, in December, the premises of several SP leaders and associates like Manoj Yadav in Agra, Neetu Yadav aka Jainendra Yadav in Lucknow were raided by the IT sleuths.
The raids on perfume baron Piyush Jain had resulted in the seizure of cash worth hundreds of crores. It was reported that Jain is a close associate of the Samajwadi Party. Later, Samajwadi Party MLC Pushparaj Jain was raided too.
On December 22, 2021, the Income Tax (I-T) Department had also detected undisclosed assets worth hundreds of crores of rupees from SP leader Rajeev Rai. These assets are in the form of undisclosed incomes, bogus loans, and investments in Benami properties.
Akhilesh Yadav has been vocal against the I-T raids and has been alleging that the BJP government in the Centre and UP state is targeting him and his party ahead of the assembly elections because they are ‘scared to lose’. UP CM Yogi Adityanath had responded to those allegations with a ‘Chor Ki Dadhi Main Tinka’ (the thief makes himself known) jibe.