Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has denied allegations that they recovered almost ₹196 crore in cash and 23 kg gold form UP businessman Piyush Jain in a case of mistaken identity. The DGGI clarified that they had raided the correct man based on specific inputs after Samajwadi Party and Congress leaders had claimed that while the target was SP leader and businessman Pushpraj Jain, but raided Piyush Jain by mistake.
Yesterday Congress leader P Chidambaram had tweeted asking if the raid was a case of comedy of errors. He had asked if the wrong person Piyush Jain was searched instead of real target Pushpraj Jain.
Is the seizure of Rs 257 crore of cash and jewellery in UP a case of ‘comedy of errors’?
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) December 29, 2021
Instead of searching Pushparaj Jain, was the wrong person — Piyush Jain — searched?
Some social media users even claimed that Piyush Jain is linked with BJP, and thus while the target was SP’s Pushpraj Jain, BJP’s Piyush Jain was raided by mistake, they claimed.
The allegations that the wrong P Jain was raided started to do rounds after some BJP leaders had claimed that raided Piyush Jain had launched the Samajwadi perfume, which was wrong information. On Tuesday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had denied any connection of his party with Kanpur based businessman Piyush Jain, and had claimed that the arrested trader was actually linked with BJP. He had clarified that the Samajwadi Attar (perfume) was launched by SP MLC Pushpraj Jain and not Piyush Jain.
After this, allegations started to appear that while Pushpraj Jain was the real target, the DGGI raided Piyush Jain by mistake. Even Pushpraj Jain had also made the same allegation and had claimed that Piyush Jain is a ‘BJP-minded’ person, saying that while he is associated with SP for 20-22 years, Piyush Jain has no link with SP.
After these allegations of ‘mistaken identity’, the DGGI has clarified that there was no such mistake, and they were after Piyush Jain only. However, Piyush Jain was caught by chance, as they were originally targeting another businessman with the same initials, Praveen Jain. The case had started when the tax authorities had stopped a truck carrying pan masala near Ahmedabad, and had found several questionable invoices.
After this, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), a law enforcement agency under the Union finance ministry fighting tax evasion, started a probe against the owner of the truck, Ganapati transport run by Praveen Jain. They subsequently raided the Pan Masala company Shikhar, also owned by Praveen Jain, and found more trucks loaded with the same pan masala with fake invoices issued to fictitious firms.
On further search, the officials had found that Praveen Jain’s relative Piyush Jain had supplied a key ingredient, a compound that gives a distinct scent to each brand of pan masala, against cash payments. The compound sales for around ₹2 lakh per kg, therefore Piyush Jain was receiving crores in cash against the supply. Following this trail, the officials arrived at the door of Piyush Jain, and made the surprise discovery of cash and gold worth around ₹284 crore.
₹19 crore in cash and 23kg of gold was found in the modest-looking home in Kannauj, while ₹177.45 crore was found hidden in his grand house in Kanpur. The authorities had to take the help of SBI for machines and manpower to count all those ₹500 and ₹200 notes.
Therefore, DGGI had raided the correct person when they raided the houses of Piyush Jain, and the name of Pushpraj Jain never appeared in the case. It was not a case of mistaken identity as P Chidambaram and others are alleging.
