On November 9, former Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) MLA from Agra, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutto, surrendered undisclosed income worth Rs 100 crores. Reportedly, the Income Tax department raided the residence and office of the BSP leader, which continued for several days. Bhutto is a meat exporter and owns a firm named HMA Group. Bhutto was elected as MLA in 2007 from the Agra Cantonment seat on BSP’s ticket.
As per reports, the IT department raided 35 locations linked to Bhutto in 12 cities spread over five states across India. The raid continued for 88 hours. Around 200 income tax officers, 250 paramilitary personnel and other security personnel were involved in the raids.
The Income Tax Department conducted raids in 12 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Raipur, Unnao, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Meerut, and Chandigarh, at the locations linked to the HMA Group. In Agra alone, 18 locations were raided. During the raids, the investigating officers confiscated documents, laptops, mobile phones and more.
The recovery made from raids at locations linked to BSP leader Bhutto is the IT department’s second biggest achievement in recent years. Around four years ago, the Agra-based BNR group was raided in which undeclared income worth Rs 101 crore was recovered.
Around 14 fake vendors have been traced as local residents of Agra. These so-called vendors were either company employees or completely unattached to the business. Furthermore, they claimed no information that the company was using their name in the alleged forgery. The investigating officer said accounts were opened in the names of poor employees, and transactions worth crores were done.
The information about fake accounts came to the fore when the IT officials went to an HMA employee, Israr Ahmed’s house. Transactions worth crores were done through his account. However, they found that Israr was a daily wager at the company. The department gave him two days to Israr to present his case. Around 14 such accounts were discovered by the department during the investigation. These employees were named as directors in shell companies as well.
In a statement, a senior officer said that HMA Group is the third-largest meat exporter in the country. It has around Rs 2,000 crore turnover. The company exports meat to 40 countries.
Muslim orgs cry foul
All India Muslim Vikas Parishad chairman Sami Aghai condemned the raids at Bhutto’s business and claimed the central government is misusing agencies like the IT Department, ED, CBI and others to harass the opposition leaders. Aghai claimed such raids would insist fear in the minds of ‘honest businessmen’.
A social activist identified as Amir Qureshi told India Today that Bhutto is a philanthropist. He claimed he has a “good image” in the city and “gives employment to hundreds of non-Muslims in his meat factories”. He further added the raids took place to “tarnish his image”.
