Rs 200 crore and counting: The great Indian cash seizure

Authorities flabbergasted, neighbours in disbelief and people hooked to TV sets - such has been the story so far for Piyush Jain - a trader from Uttar Pradesh's city of Kanpur - who had stashed a whopping amount of unaccounted wealth in the basement of his factory.

The perfume businessman from UP's Kanpur was raided by tax authority DGGI on December 23, on suspicion of tax thievery.

The officials, however, found themselves landed in a pond of unaccounted wealth - to find a staggering amount Rs 177 cash - the largest such seizure ever. However, the buck didn't stop here - the authorities later recovered another Rs 17 cash from Jain's Kannauj residence.

In addition to the cash, the authorities also seized approximately 23 kgs of gold and more than 600 kgs (value: Rs 6 crore approx) of sandalwood oil hidden in underground storage. Further searches are underway at Jain's residential/factory premises in Kannauj.

Piyush Jain's simple lifestyle

For one who has thrown up the biggest cash haul in the history of the country, Piyush Jain can easily be mistaken as just another common man. For one who stacked up crores in cash at his house and its walls, Jain`s lifestyle has been astonishingly simple.

In his hometown Kanpur, Jain still rides an old scooter and his house was extremely modest, though he recently renovated it. An IANS report says that Jain owns a Qualis and a Maruti, and when cash spilled out of his house, his neighbours were shocked.

"He was just another businessman in the perfume business and we never imagined that he would have so much cash stacked in his house. He never flaunted his wealth and even his lifestyle was very middle class," said RK Sharma, who lives in the Chippatti locality where Jain also lives.

Political slugfest

The unearthing of cash has come up amid the high stake election campaign in the state. The two top parties - BJP and SP - are linking each other with Jain.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Monday, said that now he knows why `some people` were opposing demonetisation. "The black money is now coming out of walls," he said.

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav clarified that "this raid should not be linked with SP at all. Piyush Jain has no relation with SP MLC Pampi Jain".

SP leaders, in fact, claim that Piyush Jain`s family is inclined towards the BJP and always supported the ruling party.

Judicial custody

On Monday, Jain was remanded to 14-day judicial custody by a local court after he was arrested under Section 132 of CGST Act.

"Jain has accepted that the cash recovered from the residential premises is related to sale of goods without payment of GST," said a GST official.

'Acceptance'

A statement by the DGGI said that Jain has accepted that the cash belongs to him. He, however, claims that he got the money after selling ancestral gold, for which he didn't want to pay taxes.