GST officials confirm they were after corrupt UP businessman as BJP, Samajwadi parties engage in blame game

The high profile raid on Uttar Pradesh businessman Piyush Jain which netted lakhs in unaccounted cash and almost 23 kg of gold has turned into a battleground for the BJP and Samajwadi party, who are trading accusations regarding links to the perfume baron, with the name of Samajwadi Party's Pushpraj Jain coming into the fray as the alleged real target of the raid.

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has confirmed however that the raid on Piyush Jain was based on specific inputs and intelligence which had led them to his OdoChem Industries, and not a case of mistaken identity as obliquely referenced by political leaders. Jain supplied perfumery compounds to the Shikhar group and came under the scanner for taking payments only in cash, a report by NDTV claims.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also referenced the arrest of Jain in a speech at Kanpur on Tuesday where he claimed it was Piyush Jain who had launched the "Samajwadi perfume" which was used by the Samajwadi Party to "[sprinkle the perfume] of corruption all over Uttar Pradesh".

Hitting back, Akhilesh Yadav has said the BJP had mixed up businessman Piyush Jain Pushpraj Jain, who launched the perfume named after the party. Denying any link with Piyush Jain, he said the BJP got "its own businessman raided by mistake".

"The claim by the CM that the money recovered in Kanpur is associated with the SP… there isn't a bigger lie than this. Also, whose responsibility, was it? This recovered money… How did it come? Did it come in airplanes or trains? They have their government everywhere. This proves that note ban was a failure," he retorted in response to remarks from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who said the Samajwadi Party opposed demonetisation because they wanted to hoard black money.

Piyush Jain was arrested for avoidance of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and over 200 crore in unaccounted cash was found in his residence, with 10 crores more seized from his factory on Sunday. Unaccounted sandalwood oil, perfumes worth crores have also been seized from Mr Jain's factory, sources said.