I-T dept begins inquiry in Giriraj’s stolen money case

The income-tax (IT) department has requisitioned facts from the police in connection with the burglary at the Boring Road residence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Giriraj Singh.

The police had sent to the IT copies of the statements of two of the four arrested in the case. Statements of two others arrested have already been forwarded to the court and their copies were being procured.

The police have also given IT authorities a copy of the FIR. However, it has deposited in court the recovered cash – Rs. 1.14 crore and $600 – and ornaments, amounting to lakhs of rupees.

Director, income-tax (investigation), Bihar and Jharkhand, Kumar Sanjay said, “We have requisitioned the documents from the police authorities (station house officer of Sri Krishna Puri police station in the instant case). We will now begin our inquiry into the case.”

The taxmen would first quiz the arrested persons and ask them to come out with facts, which would be correlated with their inquiry. Normally, persons making deposition under oath before taxmen have to come up with evidence in support of their claim.

Even as the MP had told newspersons that the money recovered belonged to his cousin, interestingly, none had so far turned up to claim it in court. Confirming this, superintendent of police (traffic), Patna, Rajiv Mishra, who was officiating on Friday as senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj was on leave, said: “To our knowledge, none has turned up to claim the money so far.”

Asked if the police would involve its economic offences unit or the enforcement directorate in the case, Mishra said: “I don’t think so. The SSP may be in the know of it. As of now, we have forwarded documents to the income tax department.”

The wads of money recovered from the arrested persons had seals of three banks – the Axis Bank, Allahabad Bank and the State Bank of India – in Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Gujarat.

While four persons have already been arrested, the police are on the look-out for the fifth accused, Anwar, who, too, is believed to be carrying some stolen money with him. The police had raided Anwar’s residence in Sultanganj a couple of days back.

The MP’s house at Shivam Apartment on Boring Road was burgled on July 7. The MP was in New Delhi at the time of the incident. The police had acted with remarkable alacrity and arrested two of the five accused the same evening, but made the arrests public the following day.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times