Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu is in the middle of multi-crore IT raids linked to Odisha-based Boudh Distillery Private Limited and its related organisations. The income Tax Department has so far recovered and counted around Rs 300 crores of cash from the premises linked to him and his liquor business. State Bank of India (SBI) officials worked extensively on Sunday to count the cash recovered during the raids by the I-T officials. Amidst all the legal and political drama around the raids, old posts of Sahu on social media have gone viral.
In a post in November 2021, Sahu claimed that demonetisation had an adverse effect on the Indian economy and it failed to achieve any of its goals. He wrote, “Demonetization completely broke the back of the Indian economy. Instead of achieving any of its goals, demonetisation destroyed the country’s economy.”
The demonetisation was intended to remove large amounts of black money held in high-denomination currency notes, the same way Sahu stored his black money.
In another post from November 2021, Sahu claimed that the poor were getting poorer in India while rich people were getting richer. He wrote, “The poor have been made poorer, and the rich friends have become richer, where the country’s economy is continuously falling, and Saheb’s friends are continuously getting rich. The general public has been facing this disaster continuously for seven years, opportunity in disaster is the slogan of BJP; in this, the disaster is BJP itself.”
Who is Dhiraj Prasad Sahu?
Dhiraj Prasad Sahu is a Rajya Sabha MP for Congress from Jharkhand. His family has been associated with the Congress party since independence. He became RS MP in by-polls in 2009 for the first time. In 2010, he was elected as RS MP for the second time; in 2018, he was re-elected for RS by Congress for the third time. He actively participates in parliamentary proceedings. Sahu was part of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. In recent raids at Odisha-based Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd, where Dhiraj Prasad Sahu is a partner, the Income Tax Department recovered over 300 cr of unaccounted cash. Congress Party has distanced itself from the controversy, while BJP leaders, including PM Modi, have targeted Congress.