Chhattisgarh govt refutes media reports on I-T raids

Chhattisgarh government on Thursday said that news channels are levying various false allegations on top officials and on the role of Chief Minister's Secretariat in connection with the raids by Income Tax Department.

"The news report being broadcast today with reference to the income tax raids by the Income-tax department in Raipur is completely baseless and fake. In the news report, the news channel can be seen levying various false allegations on top officials and on the role of Chief Minister's Secretariat," read the official statement by the government.

"The Income tax department in its statement issued on March 2, 2020, has not mentioned anything about these allegations. This clearly proves the fact that the news channel is using it as an opportunity to malign and harness the corruption-free image of the government of Chhattisgarh. The news report is completely fake, baseless, inaccurate and non-credible with no evidence," it read.

"During the raids too, the news channel purposely broadcast fake news to tarnish the reputation of the Chhattisgarh government and government officials," the statement further read.

The government has also said that the government's statement was not sought on the issue and that it is set to lodge a complaint against it.

"The state government's statement was not sought. The Government of Chhattisgarh is all set to lodge a complaint against the channel in front of press forum about baseless and uncorroborated news being broadcast," it added.

The Income Tax Department had on Monday conducted a raid on the residence of Saumya Chaurasiya, deputy secretary to the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister. The team of IT Department entered the residence in the presence of Chaurasiya. The department had, on February 29, sealed the residence.

The I-T Department had last week conducted raids at 25 premises, including those of Congress leader and Raipur Mayor Ajaz Dhebar and senior IAS officers in the state.

The officials raided properties of Ajaz Dhebar, his brother Anwar Dhebar and liquor baron Pappu Bhatiya.

Searches were also conducted on the premises of senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, Vivek Dhand and Anil Tuteja. Dhand is also a former Chief Secretary of the state.