NOIDA: The income tax department, in its search operation, has seized unaccounted money worth crores from the house of an ex-IPS officer. The incident happened in Noida in Uttar Pradesh. The officials revealed that it had been a survey operation initially. However, there has not been any official confirmation as of now.

Currency notes of Rs 2000 and 500 denominations were seized in the search operation. The money was kept in the building’s basement. As per information, the ex-officer was running a firm in the basement, which has 650 lockers. The probe team is investigating whether this has any links with benami property or not. The ex-IPS official is said to have close links with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party.

The income tax department officials had reached Sector 50 in Noida by Sunday evening. Income tax raids were conducted in 10 places of Varanasi and Janpur in Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday morning. Information suggests that there were raids in connection with several jewellery shop owners. The raids were conducted by around a dozen teams. Reports said that the officials had received secret information about some jewellery shop owners making hawala deals amidst the legislative assembly polls. The income tax department had found out about some suspicious deals. Following which the officers made a list of some of the jewellery shop owners under suspicion.

The income tax department is of the conclusion that the hawala money has been made available for the candidates of legislative assembly polls. It is doubted to be used for election campaigns in Uttar Pradesh.