"Centre of black money": BJP's Nishikant Dubey slams Hemant Soren over remarks on IT raids

Ranchi: Ahead of the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey on Sunday lashed out at Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren over his opposition to recent raids conducted by the Income Tax department in the state.
The raids were carried out against Soren's alleged close aide and personal secretary Sunil Srivastava.
Reacting to this, Dubey alleged that Soren's personal assistant (PA) Sunil Srivastava's wife Satya Srivastava was a 50 per cent shareholder in Global Infra Company where "illegal money" worth Rs 25 crore was allegedly found.
"In SDM sales company, illegal cash worth Rs 40 crore was found where Dinesh Mandal, Sunil Srivastava and Satya Srivastava are shareholders. Sunil was the director of Vyom Company. Now his son Shashank is the shareholder and a cash deposit worth Rs 20 crore was discovered, but the company disappeared two years ago," Dubey said on X.
"Two more companies are under Satya Srivastava's name - Ankur Nursery and Satya Sai Super Market Company. She is also a shareholder in Dubai-based company Spazio Plus LLC and Quality Life LLC. These companies neither have permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), nor they are mentioned in income tax returns. This means that it is a centre of black money. Sanjay Sharan who is Suni; Srivastava's partner has a cash deposit of Rs 20 crore and 10 (bank) lockers are yet to be opened," Dubey said.
Dubey's reaction comes after CM Soren raised concerns about the functioning of investigative agencies in the country, particularly in the run-up to the state elections.
"Have you ever seen such action in the middle of elections?" Soren asked, referring to the raids conducted by the Income Tax Department at the residence of Sunil Srivastava, allegedly a close aide and personal secretary of the Jharkhand CM, earlier today.
He went on to say that he had spoken several times about the state of constitutional agencies and how they were functioning in the country.
The 81-member Jharkhand Assembly will go to polls in two phases on November 13 and 20, with vote counting scheduled for November 23.A total of 2.6 crore voters, including 1.31 crore male voters, 1.29 crore female voters, 11.
84 lakh first-time voters, and 66.84 lakh young voters, are eligible to cast their votes.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won 30 seats, the BJP secured 25, and the Congress won 16. In 2014, BJP won 37 seats, JMM won 19, and Congress secured just 6 seats.