Jakir Hossain asked to appear at Income Tax office next week

Kolkata: A day after the Income Tax (IT) raid at the house and rice mill of Jangipur MLA Jakir Hossain, the latter has been asked to appear at the Kolkata office of the central agency next week.

Hossain was asked to bring his income and business related documents for the last five years. According to sources, IT officials have recovered about Rs 11 crore from the house and rice mill of Hossain during the raid on Wednesday and Thursday. Hossain had claimed that the IT officials have seized about Rs 1.5 crore from his house and the rest from his rice mill.

He had said that the money at his house and rice mill was kept to make payments to labourers and farmers as they only deal in cash. He also feared that if they do not keep cash, then the business might shut down.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh on Thursday said the money recovery incident was a conspiracy hatched by

the BJP to malign the ruling party MLA.

Ghosh said 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 also added that Hossain is an established businessman and he runs a successful bidi business and other agriculture-based initiatives for which he keeps a huge amount of money for labour payments.

Many labourers work in his industries. The IT department’s action might also lead to the unemployment of these poor workers.