In a crackdown on political outfits receiving donations, the Income Tax Department on Wednesday carried out searches at over 100 locations across the country as part of a tax evasion probe against registered unrecognised political parties (RUPPs) and their alleged dubious funding in the last five years, sources said.
In Delhi, the IT sleuths conducted raids on the premises of Abhishek Krishna, a lawyer of the Supreme Court said to be associated with Janraj Party, an IT department source related to the probe said.
The source added that the IT department sleuths are carrying out searches at multiple locations in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, and others.
The source said that the sleuths are carrying out searches at over two dozen locations in Uttar Pradesh.
The source added that the premises of Apna Desh Party in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur district, which is said to have got over Rs 380 crore in donations in the last three years, was also raided. The source pointed out that the action of the IT department is part of its probe against the RUPPs, their linked entities, operators, and others.
The Election Commission had recently struck off 87 entities from its list of RUPPs after physical verification, during which they were found non-existent.
(This is a developing story.)