Who is Dhiraj Sahu? Cong MP at centre of ‘highest-ever’ tax raid who was once ‘pained’ to see corruption

The Internet is a funny place. It remembers everything, sometimes for the good, most times for the bad. Recently, an old tweet of one of the Indian opposition MPs on corruption went viral when his premises were being raided by the Income Tax (I-T) department. 

The I-T department recovered Rs 353 crore (a staggering 42 million dollars) of unaccounted cash from premises linked to Congress MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu. The issue snowballed into a major political controversy because of the involvement of the Congress MP. 

The counting for tons of cash began Wednesday after the I-T department raided premises linked to Sahu. It took two to four days for the staff to count all the money, and counting was completed over the weekend. 

The I-T raids were at the premises of Boudh Distilleries Private Limited across Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. During this, Sahu’s old tweet on corruption in India went viral, leaving netizens into fits. 

Here’s more on Congress MP Sahu.

Dhiraj Prasad Sahu is a politician from the Indian National Congress party. He was elected to Rajya Sabha from the state of Jharkhand on the ticket of INC in July 2010. 

He joined politics in 1977 and was jailed during the Jail Bharo Andolan in 1978. In June 2009 he was elected to Rajya Sabha and again re-elected to Rajya Sabha in July 2010. 

Recently, his name popped into the news when several premises registered in his name were raided by the I-T department. The raid is named the biggest haul by the Income Tax department in India. 

During the raids, ruling party BJP’s Amit Malviya rubbed Sahu’s nose in the matter and shared the screenshot of his old tweet. Taking a dig at Sahu, he wrote “Dhiraj Prasad Sahu has a dark sense of humour”.

“I feel pained seeing so much corruption and black money in the country even after the note ban. This is beyond my understanding how people can accumulate so much of black money. Only Congress can uproot corruption from the country,” Dhiraj Prasad Sahu tweeted in 2022.

As per the staff of SBI Bank, who were counting cash at Sahu’s premises, 176 bags of cash amounting to over Rs 350 crore (approximately 40 million dollars) were recovered. It took 40 machines to count all the cash. 

The counting involved nine teams of about 80 people from the tax department and various banks and they worked 24X7 in shifts. After 10 cash-stuffed almirahs were found, another team of 200 officials, including security personnel, drivers and other staff, joined in.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said the party “is in no way connected with the businesses” of MP Sahu. “Only he can explain, and should explain, how huge amounts of cash have been reportedly unearthed by the income-tax authorities from his properties,” added Jairam Ramesh.

(With inputs from agencies)