KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Kunal Ghosh on Thursday said that the money recovery incident by the Income Tax (IT) department from MLA, Jangipur, Jakir Hossain was a conspiracy hatched by the BJP to malign the ruling party MLA.
Ghosh said that if the money recovered from Hossain had been illegal, the IT department would have taken legal action against him instead of circulating pictures in the media. Ghosh said that Hossian is an established businessman and he runs a Bidi industry and other agriculture-based businesses for which he keeps a huge amount of money for labour payments. Many labourers work in industries run by Hossain. It was a deliberate attempt by the BJP to malign Hossain and also to disturb his business. It will also turn these workers unemployed.
“Hossain keeps huge cash for labour payment. The way it has been published is uncalled for. The money he had in hand is termed cash-in-hand as per IT terminology. He was not given a scope to submit documents in his favour. It was a preplanned move to malign him and hence pictures were circulated. There was an attempt to kill him earlier. He won the Assembly election after that,” Ghosh said. He also raised questions as to why opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari will be given protection against arrest by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha despite his repeated hate speech.
He also said Suvendu Adhikari has been named in the FIR of the CBI in connection with the Narada case but not a single raid was carried out at his house.Incidentally, About Rs 11 crore was recovered from the house, factories and rice mill of Hossain by the IT department. Hossain owns a few businesses like a rice mill and a biri factory in Murshidabad. Hossain claimed that he has to keep a huge amount of cash for the payment of labourers and farmers as they do not accept any other payment method.
Also, Hossain said that he has mentioned the money in his IT return. Hossain said: “They found around Rs 1.5 crore from my house. I am a taxpayer. I have to keep the money for labourers. The money found in the rice mill was kept for paying the farmers. In the rice mill business, I have a few partners. If we do not keep the money the business will be shut down. ”