IT Raid, a conspiracy against me: B L Agrawal

     Raipur, February 4, 2010: Senior IAS officer of Chhattisgarh Babu Lal Agrawal today said the Income Tax raid at his house had not yielded any result for the central agency and only Rs 6 lakh in cash was found.

     The Agriculture Secretary also told ChhattisgarhTopNews.Com that there was a conspiracy to tarnish his image and the raid was a part of that.

     “Less than six lakh rupees in cash were recovered from my house by the IT officials and whatever properties, movable or immovable and the cash, recovered have already been mentioned in my Income tax return and the return filed with the General Administration Department of the Government of Chhattisgarh,” Agrawal said.

     The liquid money found today was a part of the cash in hand, as declared by him earlier, said the official.

     Talking about the Income tax raid, the 1988 Batch IAS said “there is a conspiracy to tarnish my image”.

     Although officially the Income Tax department had not said anything but sources claimed the raid was carried out on the people related to the Prime Steel, in which relatives of the IAS officer are associated.

     Because of that, the raids were conducted in the premises of the two brothers and father of Agrawal and their tax consultant Sunil Agrawal, the sources said.

    In total raids were conducted in 7 places in Chhattisgarh today where as in Madhya Pradesh the Income Tax Department carried out raids in 13 places, IT officials said.

     Among the places where the IT search were conducted included the premises of IAS couple Arvind and Tinu Joshi, two Executive Engineers, one Insurance Branch Manager, and one Insurance agent of Madhya Pradesh among others, they said.