CHIEF Minister Mayawatis favourite businessman Ponty Chadha was raided today by the Income Tax Department,which conducted searches at 19 of his premises in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The first such action by a central agency against the liquor baron comes not just a week ahead of the first phase of polls in Uttar Pradesh but also just days before his daughter Harsheens wedding. All eyes are now on the festivities,spread over February 9 and 10 and planned at the Chadha farmhouse in Chattarpur on the outskirts of Delhi . The high-profile businessman is known to have opulent family functions,with an array of politicians in attendance. Known for his proximity first to former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and later Mulayam Singh Yadav when he was chief minister followed by Mayawati,Chadhas success story began three decades ago when his father Kulwant Singh Chadha made his first forays into the sugar crushing business in UP. In 2009,he catapulted into the big league by bagging UPs entire wholesale as well as part retail contract for liquor. While Chadha premises were searched in Delhi at 13 locations,including Sainik Farms and Lajpat Nagar,in UP,IT teams comprising 200 officials undertook similar operations at six locations in Noida,Moradabad and Lucknow. Officials said they were acting on the basis of reports of tax evasion by his firms and alleged mispricing of liquor consignments. \The department,according to sources,was also looking at the possibility of illegal sale of liquor by certain firms in the run up to the UP polls. The raids began around 10.30 am in the morning and were continuing till reports last came in. Income Tax officials also searched the properties of two of his alleged associates Lalit Kapoor and Gurjeet Kochhar in Delhi and are expected to question them about certain transactions,especially over the past few months. Searches were also on\ in Chandigarh and Punjab,where Chadha runs liquor and real estate businesses. Sources close to Chadha said that while he apprehended the raids,he thought these would come once the elections were over. He never thought that the raids would happen so soon. But the target of the raids is not him or his group,it is the UP Chief Minister, a source close to him told The Indian Express. During a rare interview with the Express in 2009,Ponty had recalled that in the Chadha clan,he was the one member the family was most anxious about since he had suffered an electrocution accident as a child that had left him partially disabled. My parents would worry how I would pull through in life. But my family now tells me I have done enough for the business for several generations. During the same conversation,he had also claimed: Personally,I dont have much interest in the liquor business. It is managed by around 20 of my uncles and cousins. But the problem is that whenever anyone of them wins a fresh bid at a liquor auction,only Ponty Chadhas name appears in the press. Despite such reluclance to be described as a liquor baron,Chadha had managed to monopolise the liquor trade in Punjab during Amarinders chief ministership from 2002-2007,and it was undoubtedly his 2009 coup to bag UP liquor contract that took him to national headlines. Year after year,there have been cases in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by local liquor traders alleging flouting of excise department norms in helping Chadha clinch auctions. In many cases,the HC has even ordered re-auctions. In fact,one such case is scheduled to come up in the Supreme Court tomorrow. In the recently held Assembly elections in Punjab,Chadha is learnt to have supported many Congress candidates,a fact acknowledged by an Amarinder loyalist.
