I-T goes hi-tech to search for any hidden gold on premises linked to Dhiraj Sahu

Ranchi: After recovering Rs 350 crore in cash and 3 kg of gold on the premises of a company owned by Jharkhand Congress MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu's family, the Income Tax department has been using high-tech gadgets to recover more valuable items that could be hidden below the ground, an official said.

I-T department teams were using the geo surveillance system in the houses of Sahu in Ranchi and Lohardaga in Jharkhand.

"They found a lot of cash. The department is high-tech, so you can expect the latest available technology to be used in any of the searches," an official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

Gold jewellery and other valuables hidden below the ground could be detected using geo surveillance system.

Eyewitnesses said several I-T teams on vehicles bearing Odisha and Jharkhand registration numbers are engaged in searches at Ranchi and Lohardaga premises linked to the Rajya Sabha MP.

Attempts to contact Sahu did not materialise while employees in his Delhi office said he was not in touch with them for the past three days.

The I-T department's recent searches on an Odisha-based Boudh distillery company, owned by the family of Sahu, resulted in the seizure of cash amounting to over Rs 350 crore and 3 kg of gold.

Official sources said that this sum is the "highest-ever" haul in a single action by any probe agency in the country.

More than 30 premises in Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal were searched.