Manickam Tagore questions linking of Sahu family’s country liquor business with Congress

New Delhi [India], December 9 (ANI): After crores of rupees were recovered from Congress MP Dheeraj Kumar Sahu’s premises in Odisha and Jharkhand during raids by the Income Tax (I-T) department, Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore on Saturday questioned the linking of a business of Sahu family with the Congress.

“Why Mr PM is doing this cheap politics linking a business of Sahu family with Congress? Some facts about Dheeraj Sahu. Sahu family has been in the country liquor business for 40 years. Dheeraj Prasad Sahu’s relatives have a big liquor business in Odisha,” Manickam Tagore said in a post on ‘X’.

Explaining the business of the Sahu family, Tagore said that Baldev Sahu and Group of Companies are originally from the Lohardaga district of Jharkhand.

“The company started making country liquor in Odisha 40 years ago,” he said adding that the company is a partnership firm of Buddhist Distillery Private Limited (BDPL).

“This company also has Baldev Sahu Infra Private Limited, Quality Bottlers Private Limited and Kishore Prasad Vijay Prasad Beverage Private Limited,” Tagore said.

Speaking about Dheeraj Kumar Sahu who got raided by the Income Tax department, the senior Congress leader said, “Dheeraj Sahu, a three-time Rajya Sabha MP, contested the Lok Sabha elections twice. Apart from MP Dheeraj Prasad Sahu, many of his family members are included in Baldev Sahu and Group…born on 23 November 1959 in his ancestral home in Lohardaga. Dheeraj Sahu, brother of Late Shiv Prasad Sahu, who was the Lok Sabha MP from Ranchi, has been a Rajya Sabha MP for three consecutive terms. For the first time, he became a Rajya Sabha MP in June 2009. And in 2018 he again got elected as MP and he declared 34 crores as his worth.”

On the money that has been recovered, the photo of which was shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘X’ post, Tagore said, “Now a Sahu who is into country liquor business got IT raid, a business group had 200 crores cash they have to explain about the money.”

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to ‘X’ to share a screenshot of a media report which reported that Congress MP Dheeraj Kumar Sahu’s residences are being raided and so far 200 crores worth of cash has been seized.

“Countrymen should look at the pile of these notes and then listen to the honest ‘speeches’ of their leaders…Every penny of what has been looted from the public should be returned. This is Modi’s guarantee,” the Prime Minister had posted on ‘X’ with multiple emojis.

The raids were conducted at Boudh Distilleries Private Limited (BDPL) and entities linked to it in Odisha and Jharkhand. Baldev Sahu Infra Pvt Ltd., which is a group company of Boudh Distilleries covered in the search, is linked to Dheeraj Sahu. The raids were conducted at Bolangir and Sambalpur in Odisha and Ranchi and Lohardaga in Jharkhand, according to Income Tax sources.