Income Tax raids: ECI discusses with CBDT Chairman, Revenue Secretary

“The Election Commission held a meeting with Secretary (Revenue) and Chairman (CBDT. Issues arising out of the advisory of the Election Commission on 07.04.2019 regarding all enforcement actions being neutral, impartial and non-discriminatory and it's implementation were discussed in detail”, a Commission spokesperson said.

The Congress and other opposition parties alleged that the Central government is using the central agencies to target opposition parties, after Income Tax department carried out raids in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where opposition parties are ruling, on political leaders and their associates.

On Monday, the IT department had said “searches in Madhya Pradesh have detected widespread and well-organised racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs 281 crore through various persons in different walks of life, including business, politics and public service".

the CBDT also said, "a part of the cash was also transferred to the headquarter of a major political party in Delhi, including about Rs 20 crore, which was moved through hawala recently to the headquarter of the political party from the residence of a senior functionary at Tughlak Road, New Delhi".

The poll body on Sunday had ‘strongly advised’ the Finance Ministry that any action by its enforcement agencies during election time should be ‘neutral’ and ‘non-discriminatory’ and officials of the poll panel should be kept in loop about such actions.